Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion thoughts on mystra? (spoilers)

when i first played through the game a few months back with a friend, we initially played through by having gale ask for forgiveness, and i generally assumed this was the default/"good" ending to his story. i saw it at pretty basic depth where he crossed her boundaries and now he makes up for it. but whenever i hear people talk about her, they're almost always referring to her as one of the evil gods or even as bad as the likes of vlaakith and shar. hearing some of those points, i generally saw mystra in a more negative light, but not necessarily evil. wondering what you all think about her and why (and what ending for gale you prefer).

Mystra is not an evil goddess. The incarnation of her, that we meet in the game, is pretty young for god standards but Mystra scene s important to keep magic in balance. Last time she died, it was chaotic.

She is not really a character in the game, a player would necessarily root for, but if Gale chooses to just leave the crown in the Chiontar, his orb is still stable ( or healed even, not sure right now, but he lives a normal life), so she isn't really petty either.

I don't have strong feelings about her or most other gods in the game apart from our local resurrecter, Jergal., who is good in my book. I think the dead three are pretty stupid, but then, they were basically bullies back in the day.

Mystra should have had more faith in Gale, because if he would do, what she wants in act 2, it would make the situation worse. But I see that as the gods not knowing everything and she is forced to act indirectly by Ao, so she does, what she thinks is best. And again, she isn't petty about that, if Gale acts differently.

I think that in a lot of cases, people think Mystra has to be "evil" because all the other companions have an abuser in their story, so Gale has to have one too. Personally, I think that Gale's story makes most sense if you don't try to take it completely literally. When he first introduces Mystra to you, he introduces her as identical to magic itself and as the most important thing/person in his life. As the story continues, she also takes on the mantel of his conscience when handling magic, for example when dealing with the Shadow Weave. If you approach the story from this point of view, it's a story about a man and the relationship with his craft as well how he lets it define his self worth. It's told as a romance, but it's really about Gale coming to terms with himself. He either reevaluates what is truly important to him and makes peace with his values and his beloved craft, completely steps away from it and takes up a managing position as a god - or dies.

I think all of Gale's endings are well written, the one in which he lives are fun, the ones in which he dies are heartbreaking. My favourite one is a special ending he can have with Avatar-Astarion, in which they both build a safe haven for the other spawn together in the Under Dark (it's my favourite ending in general) but I am fond of all his adventuring endings.

Edit: I also don't think she is portrayed as evil, but I think that the gods overall are seen somewhat critically by the game.

I'm a bit of the same mind as fylimar, I don't really have any strong feelings about her. Maybe I lean a little bit into her being too controlling and deciding too much for Gale without concidering him as a person. But at the same time I can see that she may just be acting for the common good. I do not think she is evil no. I empathize with her even though I think she is stepping over Gales bounderies.

I generally go for defying Mystra in my playthoughs, and

I'm sympathetic with Kethric's take that the FR gods treat mortals as copper pieces to be traded.

Mystra, Selune and Bhaal are the Groomers Three. They engage in sexual relations with beings far below them in power and station just to set in motion mercurial machinations. The mortals affected are simply flung about and may or may not break.

Then again, they're gods more like in the Greek pantheon who revel in their power and dominance, and Ao gives them plenty of scope to misbehave. From a story perspective this is great as there's a wealth of conflict to engage with and have play out.

As for companion Gale? First play through ended with him pondering the Crown of Karsus. Second play through he ascended to God of Ambition. That sounds like being at odds with Mystra, but almost the whole party prayed to her in Act 3.

If you existed within the FR world, it'd definitely pay to pray to some of the deities. But you wouldn't want to get so close you become one of their play things.