Thoughts on Gale from Baldurs' Gate 3

[alias_sqbr]

senmut asked for general thoughts on Gale: motivations, character quirks, interesting bits, flaws? Any of that.

Spoilers for the whole game.

So, overall I quite like Gale, both in the sense of finding him endearing and thinking he's well written and works well as part of the broader story.

I'm only vaguely familiar with general D&D wizard lore, but I recognise his type very much from my time in academia, in both good and bad ways (academia and I, in the end, did not mix), and recognise some of the same traits in myself as a failed academic. He just so desperately wants people to think he's Good and Clever.

In general he's a delightful mix of contradictions which somehow make perfect sense.

He veers between shy awkwardness and grandiose self importance. He's only really good at this one thing most people think is kind of dorky, but is very good at it, and feels simultaneously that this makes him a bit dorky, and also that other people just don't realise that he is in fact the coolest.

He's by far the most pacifist of the companions, but also one of the few willing to go Full Warcrimes with only a little persuasion. He genuinely tries to be a good, kind, compassionate person, but also deep down thinks he is Better and More Important than other people and is easily inclined towards self-serving justifications for crossing all sorts of moral lines.

He believes in equality and decency but also intensely craves power and my characters have had to actively persuade him not to try to become some sort of Dark God.

I'm only at the start of Act 2 with my Galemancing Durge but it's been pretty fun and surreal. He's the only party member who did not encourage my Durge to just vent their murder urges on acceptable targets, and instead sees the urges as bad, but is also remarkably chill and accepting about it even after my Durge nearly killed him. He's very haha well we all have our little quirks, just try your best :) This light hearted acceptance and push towards kindness is really endearing in a resisting durgemance.

His design is cute! It's very... middle aged scifi writer you meet at a convention who is somehow both a bit cringe and genuinely cool, and both Very Conventionally Masculine and a little androgynous in a somewhat dated kind of way. Like, I love headcanoning characters as non binary but he feels very binary dude to me. But I can absolutely see him being a trans dude who just decided to change his gender at some point in adolescence and doesn't understand why anyone would think it was a big deal, or a cis dude who has tried being a woman out of curiosity and again doesn't understand why anyone would think this was odd.

I know his relationship with Mystra is HIGHLY contentious in fandom. I don't feel like I have a strong enough grasp of the metaphysics to say for sure how justified her actions were (or weren't), but regardless I feel like they're toxic for each other. He obviously hated feeling inferior to her, and that's kind of a given when you date a god. Haaa... now I'm wondering how he'd feel dating Ascended Astarion, probably not great unless he got to be a god.

I like how inclined he is to look up to women, even if it went sour with Mystra, and that he has these strong bonds with his mother and Tara. It caused me a moment of uncomfortableness when he referred to the Dream Visitor as "she", because I didn't realise they took different forms and thought he was misgendering the feminine presenting non-binary Dream Visitor I'd created. But now that I understand the broader context, I find it really interesting that he's the only companion who genders the visitor, and that they appeared to him as a woman.

I am very bad at the complex nuances of gameplay, so don't have strong opinions on his build gameplay-wise, but I do enjoy that you can teach him spells from scrolls. I love harding scrolls and teaching him EVERYTHING, I don't use 90% of the spells but I find it satisfying and it feels very in character for him to learn ALL THE THINGS.

I like his wry sense of humour, and little moments of bitchiness.

In terms of his role in the story... I am having a total mental blank, haa. But I think he works as a contrast to the other companions, and illustrates some important parts of the lore. And from what I know of his various possible arcs I think they all work well as stories, he starts out stalled at a crossroads and figures out who he wants to be, one way or another.

I love that he goes into teaching in the end if he's unromanced and not a god (the only type of ending I've seen with him so far). My two relevant Tavs will definitely go visit him in his tower from time to time.

It amuses me that the fastest speedrun of Baldur's Gate 3 involves playing as Gale and blowing yourself at the first opportunity. Since I do NOT want to end the game that quickly, his little "blow self up" button is very disconcerting, just sitting there amongst his regular spells. It's funny to think it works that way for him too, mentally rifling through his options for defeating a boss and his brain helpfully says "You could blow yourself up!".

And that's all I can think of right now so I will stop there!

Comments

[anghraine]

I really enjoyed all this! Gale is one of my faves but I find his fandom pretty unbearable apart from the art, so it's always nice to see your takes on him. :D

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! Your meta on him helped me get a better grasp of his character.

[anghraine]

Aww, thanks! I still haven't finished the game (or played most of the game tbh) and I was also affected by your earlier takes on him, haha, so I appreciate the Gale Takes Ouroboros we have going on, lol.

[senmut]

Thank you! This is one of the best looks at him I've seen so far, and it's wonderful.

Given I tend to write Mystra's Chosen (Forgotten Realms flavor), I was very intrigued by Gale, by the set of their relationship.

This was a joy to read.

[alias_sqbr]

Ah, thank you, I'm really glad you liked it! I don't think I've ever sat down and written character specific meta like this before, it was an interesting challenge.

[sylvaine]

I enjoyed this meta! I glommed onto Gale immediately when I (very briefly) tried playing the game, just because he's the first companion I met who had any sense of manners. I feel like "polite to strangers" is the sort of bare minimum I expect in day to day interactions, lol!

[alias_sqbr]

Ha yeah I love all the companions, but "polite" is not the first word that comes to mind when describing, say, Laezel or Astarion.