On that front, and because I always love an opportunity to praise his writing, they did a clever thing with Gale as well. I might be missing some dialogue here because I am usually on very good terms with him, but it seems that unless you romance him, he never singles the player out as being special. It's always "you and our friends" who are important to him and he is shown to have a good relationship with all of them, he's even stoked about helping Astarion against Gandrel despite their rocky start. Karlach is much the same, I think. I know it doesn't change anything about approval, which is tied to the player, but making the relationships between the companion feel more important eases out such bumps because even if Tav doesn't care, the other companions do.
