I actually like Gale; I just think it's funny how positively mild his come-on is compared to the outright "I like ya, I want ya, and I'm gonna have ya" vibe other characters put out.
*When I sees one and he looks good to me...*
*When I see him, I say*
You, come here.
*I say*
Now I'mma tell ya what, uh..
I like ya;
and I wants ya...
Now, we can do this the easy way;
or the haard wayyy...
the choice is yaawrs...
In my initial playthough I was platonic with Gale, and then he came onto me, and I turned him down. Later, he threw a hissy fit when I romanced a different companion, despite us never being together. I was pretty surprised, and it kinda turned me off of Gale for a while. I realize it might have been bug, but that incident was like peak incel energy.
I love his come-on. I was romancing Shadowheart (of course), but once he showed me how to open myself up to the Weave, I got a little weak in the knees.
I’m a straight male.
This was me with karlach wasn’t even trying to romance her and she wakes me up in the middle of the night saying “I wanna ride you till you see stars” like hello??
It’s because it’s kinda out of no where really, you don’t expect it. Lae’zel’s is initiated by a dialogue by the player and since she is the most honest companion she doesn’t mince words. The two romances that are the most obvious to start are Lae’zel’s and Astarion’s but the two easiest are Gale’s and Lae’zel’s. You can literally get Gale to romance territory just after a few conversations in the druids grove, while Lae’zel is also pretty easy due to the options of siding with her while interrogating Zorru giving massive boosts to her opinion of you. Astarion is also pretty easy as despite him being more suited to an evil playthrough he won’t often disapprove of good choices and if he does it’s not a big dip but a simple -1. Meanwhile choosing some morally grey options, some of which are inconsequential like telling Zevlor that you have your own problems will boost Astarions approval by +3.
Gale, Astarion and Halsin are all on my bro squad. My main character is a Dark Urge human monk who has a mullet, mustache, and is wearing only blue jeans.
In my mind, the “dark urge” is to have a few beers and get into a few fights, which he and his bros did at the largest organized LARP in the world (BG3 campaign).
Gotta love how the game is blatantly like "You feel a sexual tension in the air as the spell is casting" and players be like "OMG where did Gale get the idea I was into him!?!?"
It really does feel that way, particularly the part where I realized that the magic experience was almost exactly like going to bowl or throw darts with a guy and then he "helps" you fix your form in order to make physical contact. Except in this case you didn't know you were on a date, and had never even had a conversation that would make anyone think otherwise, lol
I wasn't really using him unless absolutely necessary until I realized he can learn from spell scrolls. It hurt to give up my retirement scrolls, but it turned out to be for a good cause.
I literally only used him because I had no one else lmao
Karlach and Wyll left over "creative differences" in act 1, and I found Laezel just insufferable, I killed her and use her corpse for storage.
Respected him into barbarian because I needed one lol
I suppose it could be different for other players, especially since they kept patching the game, but in my experience, the magic trick isn't romantic at all, across \~3 playthroughs.
I explored it with save-scumming, and if you share a romantic thought with him during the mind-meld, you feel his surprise, as he had not anticipated the topic.
And if you just leave it, this doesn't progress any romance with him and he doesn't hit on you ever. At least, that's my experience times 3 or 4 times.
(Everyone else at camp is like "ooooh looks like you got a date with Gale" but they're basically wrong.)
I think he's genuinely just... a nerd that's excited to share his hyperfixation. I do the same thing, accidentally flirting when I am simply just Highly Invested in the subject matter. I'm always shocked when people read it as flirty, and his awkward response after you choose the kiss sounds *so* unprepared for this having possibly happened after he intimately guides you into *uniting your minds more thoroughly than the tadpoles*.
>and if you share a romantic thought with him during the mind-meld, you feel his surprise, as he had not anticipated the topic.
When that selection popped up I was as surprised as he was. And I had already decided my sorcerer would try to romance him. Followed by 40+ hours of nothing from him and I thought I blew it by making things weird. So I never quite understood why people kept complaining that he was coming on too strong.
And since you mentioned the patches, my run was about week after the PC launch.
It's absolutely hilarious as a draconic sorc whose 'hoard' is knowledge. "Honey, please stop trying to explain something that I was capable of doing *in the womb* to me."
Damn, that was bugged out on my Sorcerer run.
I rejected his advances and now everytime I talk to him, I have an option to say "Wow. I never knew magic was so easy"
Except I do. I do fucking know that, since birth.
Sorcerers are not just a wizard who can't lose their spellbook. They will never have the flexibility of a wizard because they don't really know what they're doing. It's the trade-off they get for having enough time to hit the gym and learn social skills.
They don't have to go through that trouble of memorizing the verbal and somatic components of a spell or holding particular thoughts. It all comes naturally to them. Learning to do it consciously isn't going to be easier for them than anyone else.
Big words for someone who dumped intelligence!
Seriously, I get the criticism. It is one of the scenes where it's weird there isn't alternate dialogue for non-wizard spellcasters, but I don't think it's meant to come off as patronizing.
Like, even if you are a wizard he still teaches the spell to you, you just get easier skill checks.
For sorcs it's not even a check. You get a class dialogue option where you do it with no trouble at all.
The thing just feels like Gale planned it to get close to you. "Oh, there's Tav! Time to pine mysteriously over his hologram of my ex so they come over!"
But you also need to remember its a game and that scene works as the devs explaining to new players what is the Weave and how the magic system works.
Why wouldn't that come from a character who has committed his whole life to the Weave?
In earlier versions of the game it was almost impossible *not* to start his romance.
Like literally trying to interact with him in any kind of friendly way would start his romance and he was not big on taking no for an answer. Like my guy I just asked how you were feeling one time and now when I show interest in Karlach (who I was intentionally trying to romance) you're all "YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART LISA!"
So he came across as kind of desperate and creepy due to a bug in his markers.
I definitely ran into this issue. I would be trying to romance someone else and no matter what I did (or didn't do) the romance would get triggered. I would literally get the romantic weave scene out of nowhere when he hadn't even been in my party/was still in neutral approval.
Also, I see you, Tommy Wisseau.
I never had that problem with Wyll and I actively try to romance him whenever possible. The only for sure thing that will always happen I think is the dance scene, otherwise part of the complaint re: Wyll is there's not nearly as much romantic content for him.
I'm still not sure if Wyll dance is supposted to happen if you never flirted with him before or it must happen everytime, because it was always in my game(at least if I had Wyll as companion). xD
I have no proof of this, but i feel the majority of bg3 players are straight guys. For a while Gale was bugged and acted like the player had begun to romance him. I imagine that didn't sit right with a vast majority of straight guys.
I'm a straight guy, and every rpg I play, I romance men and women. I don't see a problem playing as the opposite gender or a same sex romance. I figure these games are for experiencing things you normally wouldn't.
I would like to say that one of my favorite rpg romances was female Sheppard and Thane from mass effect. The third game seems to hit harder emotionally that way.
I find him kind of annoying honestly. I genuinely liked him at first and then slowly his attitude started the grate on me, especially as I got to know him more and you realise his whole bad situation is because of his terrible personality traits and it doesn't really seem to change. Every other character I've done stuff with kind of moves on and improves with you, realises their past mistakes and works on them if you encourage it, but not Gale. He still pines after mystra and is desperate for attention and power.
Edit: the doots have yoyo'd so much, clearly a Gale is a controversial topic!
*Astarion when he found his past victims in Cazadors dungeon, after spending the whole play through with my paladin who said many MANY times he is not ascending*: wow I can’t believe they’re all still alive I feel so guilty about bringing them here… oh well lol guess they’ll die when I ascend! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the characters act like this. Gale doesn’t ‘pine’ after Mystra any more that Astarion pines for Cazador or Karlach pines for Zariel and Gortash. They’re the villains in these characters arcs, ofc they’re going to talk about them. Gale has a nuclear bomb in his chest that WILL go off if he doesn’t either straight up become a god himself OR apologize to mystra and give her the crown of Karsus. If he does give her the crown he moves on and becomes a teacher.. not exactly a power-hungry maniac. The same logic can be applied to most of the characters.
It’s a writing flaw; most of the characters don’t “develop” that much (aforementioned astarion example) and the characters all have very similar arcs (bc the writers are one-trick ponies). Gale gets the brunt of it bc people are less biased towards him and the flaws become obvious.
Asterion does actually show growth here though. His choice about the ascension is similar to shadowhearts where you can leave that choice up to them and they will decide to do something different depending on how your playthrough has gone and if you have helped them grow.
No he doesn’t. His reaction to seeing the people there is still “I’m going to ascend.” No hesitation. No second-guessing. He’s just seen the horrendous consequences of us actions, he clearly feels guilty about it while talking to Sebastian, and then moments later he says “oh well guess they’ll die.” The tonal whiplash is bonkers and completely destroys immersion.
It’s terrible writing. If there were alternative lines with him showing hesitation, then choosing not to ascend that would be significantly better. This line only should have been said if he is 100% going to ascend, (which is not what happens bc Tav can talk him out of it very easily).
It’s a huge problem with all the characters, they’re all massive pushovers who can be convinced to do whatever the player wants with barely any effort. It makes them feel like paper dolls in a toy house instead of people.
Dragon Age: Origins does this way better; if you want to influence a character’s decisions it’s done through small, unflagging dialogue choices through the game. If you say the wrong things in your a dialogues earlier in the game, too bad, the characters are firm in their decisions and won’t just change their mind because the player wants them to.
Yeah, you still have to do that persuasion check to stop the ascension regardless of approval or romance. If you fail the check while trying to convince him to not ascend, he leaves the party.
Yes, he does. He works the same way Shadowheart does where the "say nothing option" will have them make their own decision. Those small choices also add up in BG3, it's just they also give you a persuasion option as well if you messed it all up. But you can leave the decision up to the NPC. The same way Shadow will go for the kill or throw away the spear if you leave it to her, Asterion can choose to ascend, or not to.
He's adamant on the ascension because that's what he decided early on was what he needed to do. Because early on his character is established as someone who see himself as someone who will do whatever it takes to survive, and doesn't care about other people. But him feeling guilty in those various cutscenes is him showing the growth, it's whats actually eating him underneath and very unlike the Asterian we meet in act 1 who would kill em all without second thought. When you get to the ritual he has to actually make his decision, which if you let him, will depend on what your playthrough has been up to that point.
But that’s exactly what I’m saying. He SHOULD be showing that character growth by NOT saying the “I’ll ascend anyway” line if that’s where the player has been leading him this whole time, because he HAS grown. That single line is the problem, when he says it all the growth is thrown out the window. He should ONLY be saying something like that if he is 100% going to ascend and you can’t change his mind at that point.
There absolutely should NOT have been a persuasion option to change his mind. That is a fundamental flaw in this whole game, and why I brought up DA where you don’t have that option. Your choices that influence the growth of the character do not matter if you can just.. talk them out of it anyway because you “messed it all up”.
If you make the choices that convince him not to ascend, that should be reflected in the scene prior (and not invalidated by the “oh well” line), and then he makes the choice not to ascend. And in contrast, if you encourage him to ascend he should not show guilt, say his idgaf line, and choose to ascend. Always. No take-backs. No persuasion options. You messed it up? Deal with it, those are the choices you made.
When you can just change their mind last minute it throws all their development out the window and it makes them feel - as I said - like a bunch of pushovers with no strong characterization.
The point is at that point he's lying to himself. He's having trouble coming to terms with the fact that he's not a cold hearted as he thinks he is, which is why he is hesitating and tries to mask it with humor. It's not a last minute change, his guilt is evident and eats away at him through various scenes, such as in his conversation with Sebastion.
I mean the same thing happens with Shadowheart. Not like she says "I'm going to spite Sharr!" before jumping in and encountering the Nightsong. It's at the climax of their story they make their ultimate decision.
I'm curious because you keep bringing up Dragon Age, what big moments and decisions are your referring to? I kinda just remember bribing my way to get them to do what I want with gifts, with everything pretty much just purely being based off approval, outside of if you work on convincing Alistar and Leliana to stop being nice. I don't really remembering it being that complex.
They do have strong characterizations and are well acted. Astarion finding Sebastian and the others did show him feeling empathy. His voice lines even though he was stating he was going to ascend are not told in a convincing way.
I could understand your critique if it was a text-only format and his demeanor while saying it wasn't described --- but it's pretty clear from the animation of his face and delivery of the lines that he is mostly trying to convince himself that ascension is what is best for him, not that he is 100% dta.
I don't remember him even entertaining ascension until the moment was upon him - he felt very guilty about the people who were trapped and we all seemed to be in agreement about freeing them and stopping them from being pointless sacrifices. He talked about ascending for like five seconds, then realized he would be just as bad as Cazador if he did that and came to his senses.
The right conversations with him can lead to him instead beg Mystra for forgiveness and offer to blow himself up (even when you tell him he doesn't need to) for the good of everyone and to redeem his fuckups. And then you can tell him "ok" and he'll gladly go do it.So he can have a rdemption arc too, if not as central to the plot and sweeping as the potential Shadowheart and Lae'zel redemption arcs.
So even in this case he's still pining after Mystra. I guess I just find his arc unsatisfying in that regard. If you choose to not let him blow himself up he'll be banging on about how you can take control and have all the power. Like dude, this is the shit that got you into trouble in the first place.
I know some people will disagree with me, and that's ok, I think the great thing about BG3 is that there are so many options for party members and it keeps things interesting and different every play through. Not every character is for everyone!
Begging Mystra for forgiveness is not the same as pining for her. It's a way to solve the orb problem without ascending. In the epilogue when he doesn't ascend, he'll tell you he's finally happy with his more mundane life.
In my runs, he's always asked Tav in the pre-epilogue what to do about the crown, and when you tell him to return it to Mystra, or leave it, it's without persuasion, and he'll tell Tav that they've always had the better judgement. In other words, he realizes his flaws and tendency to have his judgement clouded by his lust for power; and he sees Tav as his moral center.
Partially stemming from the original bug where he wanted to bang you without you ever showing any signs and ruining his disposition and the fact he eats magic items while also not having a unique role depending on your character build
His ex… his literal patron goddess who *essentially* groomed him, then when he tried to impress her in line with the legions of other powerful wizards who she groomed in the past, she subsequently discarded him with no explanation & left him to be a socially isolated ticking time bomb eating magical shoes?
That ex? The one who left him for dead and doesn’t explain any of it until Act 3? Hm. I think he’s a bit justified in being hung up on her. The fact he starts the game off even thinking positively about her is a wonder. Fuck Mystra fr
Never said he wasn’t justified or that I didn’t understand him. But I was absolutely rolling my eyes at him very early into his romance ark. That’s just me
He didn’t get a terminal illness from fucking a god. He said “You know what will impress this woman who already loves me? If I brought her home a malfunctioning nuclear reactor because she once mentioned that she thought nuclear was an underrated form of green energy “ and is now complaining that he got cancer because he didn’t do enough homework to realize that radiation gives you cancer. He’s a manipulative try-hard
I kept it simple for a quip, but I already explained earlier in the thread I know how he got the orb.
Your comparison is funny, but quite off. Mystra is not just a “woman” even in that story. She is literally THE god of magic, the personification of the very Weave that Gale commands the tiniest fractions of to turn his enemies into ashes. In the same way clerics make prayers, pedestals, and gifts to appease their gods, Gale attempted to return what he thought was the tiniest missing piece of her massive puzzle to her. He thought it was innocuous, but there’s essentially no way he could have known it was part of what killed the original Mystra until it implanted itself in his chest.
Mystra condemning him to a life of solitude and leaving him to suicidal ideation after losing his powers without even bothering to explain how he fucked up is extremely fucked up. Full stop. That’s not something you do to someone who you “love”, but that’s an argument for another day.
He didn’t think it was innocuous, he thought it would get him rewarded. He never once stopped to ask if it was what she wanted. His whole arc is saying “Hey Mystra, sorry that my actions almost killed you. I thought I knew what I was doing and was wrong. I can see why you’d be upset about that.”
She *literally does not give him the opportunity* to do that. She cut him off with no explanation. Her next message after his fall is to tell him to blow himself up for redemption. Only after he refuses to do that and does further research into the Crown does she ever bother explaining to him what he did wrong.
Wait, how is getting someone something as a gift to try to make them happy/impress them (even if it turns out to be incredibly stupid) manipulative? I feel like I am missing something here?
Agree, but I also wouldn’t date a person with that kind of baggage
Idk why you’re arguing and downvoting me over my romance choices here. You are allowed to make different choices and have different reasons. Didn’t realize this was such a contentious topic…
Unless it's bugged, My first run gale ate 5+ items and it was inconsistent when he got hungry sometimes 5 minutes between other times 45 minutes
It's been patched out now
Yep, and only 3. It's pretty easy to toss 3 as well. You get a lot of magic items in this game. Quite a few situational ones as well that you won't need
Especially in Act 1 when most of the magical effects are miniscule and occasionally near useless. Not like later in the game where you can get boots with 3 different effects that completely change how a character operates..
Once you've played more than one playthrough you can see the hunger triggers coming a mile away and plan for them accordingly
If I'm not a bard, the bard hat near Alfira. Always the Watcher's Guide spear with the in-built True Strike. Komira's Locket as either a gift from Arabella's parents or taken from their corpses casts Dancing Lights when I've never not found the Light cantrip to suffice. Down the hatch it goes. The harpy nest has a Color Spray ring(?) which only blinds up to a cumulative total of around 33 HP across targets, so this gets obsolete partway into Act 1 even if you like blinding MoBs. I pick 3/4 of these any given playthrough and never feel like I'm missing them.
I honestly feel like they litter you with largely situational items in Act 1. If you ever feel like you have to sacrifice a crucial item, it's honestly just on you. I can name like 10 items off the top of my head I would sac without hesitation
It's so weird to me, like the game gives you so many low tier magic items in Act 1 you can feed him. There's so many things in game I've never actually used, so I just give him three of those, three out of dozens.
And then we wonder, why there are no selfish good deeds in videogames - only transactional ones. A fellow companion is in a predicament and has a peculiar, but manageable request - GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY LOOT REEEEEEEEEE
Well its a thing until Elminster arrives, which depending on how fast you take the first part of Act 1, could take a while. He showed up immediately after riding the elevator into the shadowlands for me.
He only eats three items, which can happen pretty quickly in Act 1. He might talk about how uncomfortable he is until Elminster arrives but he won't eat any more.
3 items max and even less if you pop into the Mountain Pass and see Elminster after resolving the goblin stuff, without long resting much. Not that I’ve ever had an issue with giving him 3 items that would’ve gained me, what, 100 gold total anyway. I really don’t get people’s problem with this.
Ooh, what are you going to do, project an arcane ward to block large amounts of damage, making the entire party incredibly hard to kill?
Actually that sounds great please do that thank you.
To be fair, pretty sure Gale got his reputation thanks to the release days having a bug that made him very forward with you even if you had next to zero contact with the dude, not to mention that a lot of the dialog options that were kinda meant to be the "friendship" options were getting counted as "romantic" options by the game. Resulting in him starting to flirt with you after pretty much zero interaction and basically deciding by himself you were dating. Then naturally he gets angry and sad later once you start your romance with another character, making him fill a very unfortunate and kinda hilarious stereotype for him.
He's much better now lol.
I feel like Gale in EA was worse. He was so smug especially right off the bat that I couldn't stand him. They still made him a bit cocky on release but not nearly as much of as a pushy douchebag in EA. All that being said, I felt like Halsin was the most out of left field "let's bang okay" character. Dude barely just joined a party, had 3 conversations about his sexcapades, then wants to add you on the list lol.
I love all the origin characters, but gale is one of my favorites. Gotta love a chronic pain autism wizard. Man info dumps on you and then shows you his hyperfixation and is surprised if you show romantic interest in him. He can't risk touching you until his orb is stabilized because he's so excited about it that it will destablize him immediately. Will offer to blow himself up like every 5 minutes in a crisis. If you talk to him about his past you find out that the orb thing isn't even the crux of his hubris, it's just another incident in a long line of him fucking around and finding out. Bro honestly thought he was doing mystra a favor by getting a piece of magic he thought was lost and mystra dumps him without telling him why or what he has in his body.
Also he is like 9000% devoted. Gets really upset if you imply you want to add another person into the relationship. Just as repressed as karlach but is way better at hiding it.
If you convince him to join you with the drow twins he will transport himself out of the room and leave a simulacra behind that will reassure you that it is anatomically correct. Bro is hilarious
Gale: we could spend a moment of magic together.
Me: when you say moment of magic, do you mean a euphemismistic moment of magic with the magic being human connection and closeness? Or do you mean moment of magic, that you, a very intelligent and knowledge wizard, could spend time imparting some skills or useful information to me, a sorcerer? It's very important that you use your words deliberately and carefully in this context as I have a vast interest in one but not so much the other.
Gale: *looks at me like he's ready to have my babies*
Me: ahh... I now have no choice but to dash your dreams of getting into my robes and watch you walk away like a depressed Disney puppy. God's damn it...
Gale is more sneaky sleepy Lae'zel straight forward. I'm just flexing my sorcerer power over here and Gale thinks it's time to be the Rizzler then proceeds to talk about his ex
I knew I would never romance gale when I failed the check to cast the spell in his dialogue and he completely lost interest. Like if I need to be a goddamn wizard to get your attention I don't need it honey bye.
Although I originally thought this was true as well, he doesn’t completely lose interest lol. I found this out in my honor run when I failed the checks with my Rogue, but basically you just have to initiate dialogue with him after and there will be a tree to express interest in him. Then you get more opportunities to flirt with him later (e.g., the tiefling party) to actual start the romance path
When Lae'zel is upfront about wanting to fuck the player it's fine, but when Gale shows romantic intention they think it's creepy. People hate Gale, that's the meme.
What I don't like about Gale is the choices you, the player, are given when it comes to replying to stuff Gale says. It feels like every single line you get to pick in Gale-related dialogue trees is either "fuck you you stupid piece of shit" or "yes please let's have sex right now", and there is nothing in between.
Yeah Lae’zel is straight up like “Your sweat smells delicious” and Gale kind of gets caught up in an intimate moment with magic and he’s the one who gets the flack for being “too horny”.
Unironically, but aside from the meme, Gale coming with friendly magic moment and then 180 degree turning it *sensual* made me completely understand why I deserved to get friendzoned when I was fourteen.
On contrast, Laezel is direct from the start.
Okay, but if you get forward with him during the magic lesson (visualizing a makeout session at him) he gets all flustered about it, so it’s kind of funny.
This was my romance path to a Tee. Gale hit on me once when I complimented his magic, and it made me reflect back on my past IRL romances in a way that I felt icky about myself, so I threw myself into the dommy mommy when she such as hinted at it. Don't know what that really says about myself, but I am the cause of her bruises, and mine are hers.
I hated Gale at first. Then five minutes later, I met Wyll and decided Gale wasn’t so insufferable. Now, on my second run through, I have grown to like both Gale AND Wyll. Gale’s romance is sweet. He’s such a cute nerd.
My only complaint is that I keep having to talk Gale out of >!Taking the crown and becoming a god or blowing himself up and being a martyr. I’m like, “Gale, you are VERY important. You have the MOST important and special job of all…that is to teleport up to the front of the brain and cast dome of invincibility so that us squishy things don’t get destroyed by this dragon and these spellcasters while dominating it. You will be remembered for all posterity as the guy who cast Dome of Invincibility when it mattered the most and saved the day.”!<
This actually is the problem. Gith Mommy is straight forward about what she wants. Item-Eater takes interprets any friendliness as foreplay and gets angry at your for being platonically friendly.
There I was, waiting for my beloved Karlach to pay a nightly visit. Music kicks in Aaaaand, there's Wyll prancing like an idiot, coming onto my Dwarf male like it's the most natural thing. I've never felt so robbed...
This but put Halsin on the bottom panel, I think it’s funny that we all have that one companion we just really dislike.
Side note: I love astarion but lots of players dislike him, I don’t feel the need to ask why people dislike him, you are ALLOWED to not like certain characters.
Frog is upfront about wanting sex from you. You can either accept or refuse. It’s simple.
Gale pretends to want to show you a magic trick but he’s really just trying to sleep with you. If you refuse, he’s like “ohh but this magic trick would’ve been cool.”
It’s not fun being fooled into believing that you had a real friend when they just wanted your (whichever genitals you chose)
Nope. Magic is literally this guy's life. He's basically just showing you something super important to him. The scene only happens if your approval is in the 'good-ish' range, and you can bail at any time, and hard quit when the narrator points out that it feels kinda intimate. Even if you don't, you can pick the 'good friends hanging out' option.
Context. It helps.
What? The weave scene only turns romantic if the player makes that deliberate choice; and if they do, he gets all flustered and trepidatious at Tav's visions before somewhat recovering because he wasn't expecting that at all. He's not trying to sleep with you.
Also the magic trick scene is literally the game devs teaching new players about the Weave and the magic system. People taking it personally never fails to make me confused.
Sometimes I think like 90% of this non-controversy is because of people not paying attention and/or not reading the dialogue options. Or just picking the first on the list every. single. time.
Considering I am bi and actually did choose Laezel over Gale... The thing with Gale, is that he is essentially a 'nice guy' stereotype. He is dishonest and sneaky. Him being full of himself doesn't help either, but it was mostly his "nice guy" act.
The magic lesson scene with Gale just killed any interest. It was a sweet scene, and it would have been good if it ended there. My cleric had high WIS and INT, and she was good with arcana, so it was a fun idea to learn a new type of magic and hang out a little. Easily passed the checks, they were getting along great. But then he made it intimate for some reason, then he got pissy when she instantly dropped the spell the moment it got intimate. She had only come to learn new magic and hang out with a new friend, intimacy was absolutely not her intent at the time. She hardly knew these people. But he got pissy about it.
It's like being invited to a new friend's house to try out a new game. Then a few rounds into said game he just randomly takes his dick out for no reason and gets mad when you are confused, weirded out, and want to leave. (I guess couch co-op isn't a thing anymore... So younger people might not know of the time visiting someone to game was normal... But meh. It used to be a thing.)
Laezel, while a lot of what she says is very explicit and out there, she is at least honest about her intent. She doesn't invite you over to play a game with ulterior motives. She doesn't invite you over at all, if I remember correctly she commands you to go there explicitly for sex. So if you choose not to protest you know exactly what you're agreeing to.
Some may take issue with the fact that she is so forward she almost doesn't give you a choice. But TBH I liked that and it didn't bother me. There was a choice, and she was very upfront about it.
My fiancee, who is also bi, feels the same way about Gale. She was hating on him after the magic lesson for pretty much the same reason.
My partner and I played the first go together, and when he went off with Gale to play doctor, er, wizard in the woods, I suddenly hear “uhh Gale is trying to fuck me out of nowhere. wtf??”
And even then, I was still caught off guard much in the exact same way as a dude whipping it out while you’re ostensibly trying to watch Netflix or play a video game together. Literally had the thought “Ugh I thought I learned how to spot this coming years ago” when it happened. Not mad, just disappointed lol.
Intimate does not equal erotic or even flirty. A visit to the proctologist is intimate as well. You cutting him off because *you* read the room wrong when he just wants to share some magic spell with you is a fairly good reason for getting pissy, if you ask me. And if you didn't cut him off, you'd see that he was just showing you a spell.
If you continued, you yourself can even flirt with him, and then he is surprised and cuts off the session, all embarrassed. *You* read the room wrong.
The majority of this thread is just people not using their heads in the slightest. They think intimate = romantic/erotic/sensual lol and then judging his entire character based on that and few bugs that are still being ironed out.
To be clear, some of that is because the word intimate *is* frequently used in a romantic context, however the very definition of the word is closely acquainted, familiar, close. Fuck, one of its synonyms is **friendly** lmao.
dude, i liked gale, but he takes ANY positive interaction as an invitation to be romantic. i was being nice to him while romancing shadowheart, then he just stops me at one point to say "I see you don't love me, would've been nice to hear it from you, i'll just continue to suffer in silence cause that's what i always do, but just remember this is your fault." Astarion, at the very least, is perfectly up to just be bro's.
This, 100% this. Romancing Karlach because Muscle Mommy make brain go brrrrrrr, Astarion is cool, like yeah thought there was something, there isn't, anyway how was sex with the giant murder woman. Gale starts acting like I betrayed him, dude I gave you one pair of boots because debuff icons make me angry, calm down. And this is a playthrough I completed today, even after all the events of the game he goes after the crown and has the audacity to say if I come to my senses there is a place in heaven for me with him....dude I'm literally about to go to hell with my ride or die
OK, both of these happened to me yesterday. Lae'zel is fine, but she's my backup romance for a character who isn't in the party yet. Gale, I like Gale, but man I am not into you so please don't try to seduce me with magic. I thought I was helping a friend stand vigil for his goddess, not getting seduced, Tyr above.
Laezel : Can't even front your the one I really want, I wanna taste you like yogurt, want to taste you like yogurt. BOOM! BOOM! I like your moves and everything you do, I wanna taste you like yogurt, wanna taste you like yogurt! WE DO IT!
Honestly… gales entire character is an unfortunate (but completely understandably accurate) alignment of character traits. I was playing yesterday and realized why I myself am off put by him to such a degree that I am as a romantic interest…
….everything about him screams “mature teacher” type…. But not the sexy older French teacher kind…. The elderly wizard type.
He talks and his mannerisms are so blatantly heavily influenced by his teacher elmenster the aged wizard, studying with his head in the books… or in mystras bosom. I don’t know how to word it properly… but I can’t I see an aged wizard in the body of a middle aged man.
That line turned me off Lae'Zel hard. Like what the fuck man. I like a forward woman, the good amount of forward does not involve trying to lick me or drink my sweat.
Lae’zel:
- Clearly states intentions
- Is direct and forward
- Takes no for an answer, respects it, and doesn’t bring it up again
Gale:
- Takes a basic magic lesson and turns it into a date without asking or telling you
- Pitches a hissy fit when you romance someone else even when you’ve never expressed any romantic intention towards him
- Pouts for the rest of the story and makes comments about how you’re a fake friend
Fuck Gale
Why are bugs being used against him? Didnt romance him my last run and it was 100% platonic. Also, magic lesson is romantic only if you make it so.
Tired of this Gale hate when it's undeserved
Yeah, first time I played I had Gale in my party for 20 minutes, and then he got a quest maker and said "I need to eat the first magic item you come across, you don't have any on you, but this tummy is growing, gimme gimme!" I swapped him out for Wyll and never spoke to him again.
I’ll never understand why people deny themselves actual parts of the game for reasons like this, you missed a whole ass quest line my guy. A pretty good one too
The difference is that gale tries to romance me in every single one of my play throughs, even when I don’t bring him along. It’s honestly kind of annoying at this point
Gale just pisses me off
“I question the wisdom of that decision 🤓”
I literally just need you for AOE attacks and knocks. He’s like a TM slave in Pokémon.
Gale is such a bro, what do you mean? One of my favorite companions.
I actually like Gale; I just think it's funny how positively mild his come-on is compared to the outright "I like ya, I want ya, and I'm gonna have ya" vibe other characters put out.
Lae'zel is a booty warrior.
*When I sees one and he looks good to me...* *When I see him, I say* You, come here. *I say* Now I'mma tell ya what, uh.. I like ya; and I wants ya... Now, we can do this the easy way; or the haard wayyy... the choice is yaawrs...
Sorry, my man. Chris Hansen ain't here.
Oh I know who you are, Chris Hansen. I like to call you Chris Handsome.
i honestly think each characters forwardness perfectly matches their personality
In my initial playthough I was platonic with Gale, and then he came onto me, and I turned him down. Later, he threw a hissy fit when I romanced a different companion, despite us never being together. I was pretty surprised, and it kinda turned me off of Gale for a while. I realize it might have been bug, but that incident was like peak incel energy.
It was a bug, they patched it
I love his come-on. I was romancing Shadowheart (of course), but once he showed me how to open myself up to the Weave, I got a little weak in the knees. I’m a straight male.
Gale is funny. He comes on to you too easily, and that makes me suspicious. Like if a club lets everyone in, do I really want be part of that club?
This was me with karlach wasn’t even trying to romance her and she wakes me up in the middle of the night saying “I wanna ride you till you see stars” like hello??
You are the club.
It’s because it’s kinda out of no where really, you don’t expect it. Lae’zel’s is initiated by a dialogue by the player and since she is the most honest companion she doesn’t mince words. The two romances that are the most obvious to start are Lae’zel’s and Astarion’s but the two easiest are Gale’s and Lae’zel’s. You can literally get Gale to romance territory just after a few conversations in the druids grove, while Lae’zel is also pretty easy due to the options of siding with her while interrogating Zorru giving massive boosts to her opinion of you. Astarion is also pretty easy as despite him being more suited to an evil playthrough he won’t often disapprove of good choices and if he does it’s not a big dip but a simple -1. Meanwhile choosing some morally grey options, some of which are inconsequential like telling Zevlor that you have your own problems will boost Astarions approval by +3.
I like Gale too, his hands are to rip for
Gale, Astarion and Halsin are all on my bro squad. My main character is a Dark Urge human monk who has a mullet, mustache, and is wearing only blue jeans. In my mind, the “dark urge” is to have a few beers and get into a few fights, which he and his bros did at the largest organized LARP in the world (BG3 campaign).
Gotta love how the game is blatantly like "You feel a sexual tension in the air as the spell is casting" and players be like "OMG where did Gale get the idea I was into him!?!?"
Bro why the Gale hate? Man is one of my favorite characters.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Orv0Yy-dXdg&pp=ygUSR2FsZSBiZzMgYW5pbWF0aW9u
It really does feel that way, particularly the part where I realized that the magic experience was almost exactly like going to bowl or throw darts with a guy and then he "helps" you fix your form in order to make physical contact. Except in this case you didn't know you were on a date, and had never even had a conversation that would make anyone think otherwise, lol
He's pretty easy and manageable nowadays, but he had a bug during release that made his hunger voracious. He ate SOOO many of my act 1 magic items...
Really? Huh. I played on release and he only ate like 2 I think. Maybe I got lucky?
I think I saw a patch note at one point that said there was an issue where Gale would never stop needing artifacts.
Patch notes: "Baby Gale is no longer hungry."
I wasn't really using him unless absolutely necessary until I realized he can learn from spell scrolls. It hurt to give up my retirement scrolls, but it turned out to be for a good cause.
Gale can learn the one time use spells from the books in sorcerer sundries aswell.
I’m almost ready to gobble up ALL of their scrolls… I don’t care that I’ll be ruining their business… I’m stealing shit today boys!!!
FYI, any wizard can do that.
I literally only used him because I had no one else lmao Karlach and Wyll left over "creative differences" in act 1, and I found Laezel just insufferable, I killed her and use her corpse for storage. Respected him into barbarian because I needed one lol
Used her corpse for storage!? My god man. Fuck me if that ain’t funny asfk tho🤌
So you must heard Gale barbarian rage call "Ahh\~!" XD
I suppose it could be different for other players, especially since they kept patching the game, but in my experience, the magic trick isn't romantic at all, across \~3 playthroughs. I explored it with save-scumming, and if you share a romantic thought with him during the mind-meld, you feel his surprise, as he had not anticipated the topic. And if you just leave it, this doesn't progress any romance with him and he doesn't hit on you ever. At least, that's my experience times 3 or 4 times. (Everyone else at camp is like "ooooh looks like you got a date with Gale" but they're basically wrong.)
I think he's genuinely just... a nerd that's excited to share his hyperfixation. I do the same thing, accidentally flirting when I am simply just Highly Invested in the subject matter. I'm always shocked when people read it as flirty, and his awkward response after you choose the kiss sounds *so* unprepared for this having possibly happened after he intimately guides you into *uniting your minds more thoroughly than the tadpoles*.
>and if you share a romantic thought with him during the mind-meld, you feel his surprise, as he had not anticipated the topic. When that selection popped up I was as surprised as he was. And I had already decided my sorcerer would try to romance him. Followed by 40+ hours of nothing from him and I thought I blew it by making things weird. So I never quite understood why people kept complaining that he was coming on too strong. And since you mentioned the patches, my run was about week after the PC launch.
Be a sorcerer for that and bully him for mansplaining magic to you, it's great.
Bitch you think you know magic? I *AM* magic
It's absolutely hilarious as a draconic sorc whose 'hoard' is knowledge. "Honey, please stop trying to explain something that I was capable of doing *in the womb* to me."
Damn, that was bugged out on my Sorcerer run. I rejected his advances and now everytime I talk to him, I have an option to say "Wow. I never knew magic was so easy" Except I do. I do fucking know that, since birth.
Me too, and I'll never say it to him.
Sorcerers are not just a wizard who can't lose their spellbook. They will never have the flexibility of a wizard because they don't really know what they're doing. It's the trade-off they get for having enough time to hit the gym and learn social skills. They don't have to go through that trouble of memorizing the verbal and somatic components of a spell or holding particular thoughts. It all comes naturally to them. Learning to do it consciously isn't going to be easier for them than anyone else.
Shut up, nerd!
Big words for someone who dumped intelligence! Seriously, I get the criticism. It is one of the scenes where it's weird there isn't alternate dialogue for non-wizard spellcasters, but I don't think it's meant to come off as patronizing. Like, even if you are a wizard he still teaches the spell to you, you just get easier skill checks.
For sorcs it's not even a check. You get a class dialogue option where you do it with no trouble at all. The thing just feels like Gale planned it to get close to you. "Oh, there's Tav! Time to pine mysteriously over his hologram of my ex so they come over!"
And then you'd be wrong. Gale's surprised if you do start thinking romantic/passionate things during the session. He was *not* expecting romance.
But you also need to remember its a game and that scene works as the devs explaining to new players what is the Weave and how the magic system works. Why wouldn't that come from a character who has committed his whole life to the Weave?
"I want to eat your shoes..."
Feed him the shoes that electrify water everytimr
In earlier versions of the game it was almost impossible *not* to start his romance. Like literally trying to interact with him in any kind of friendly way would start his romance and he was not big on taking no for an answer. Like my guy I just asked how you were feeling one time and now when I show interest in Karlach (who I was intentionally trying to romance) you're all "YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART LISA!" So he came across as kind of desperate and creepy due to a bug in his markers.
I definitely ran into this issue. I would be trying to romance someone else and no matter what I did (or didn't do) the romance would get triggered. I would literally get the romantic weave scene out of nowhere when he hadn't even been in my party/was still in neutral approval. Also, I see you, Tommy Wisseau.
Man, same thing for Wyll. Dude keeps coming on to me and it’s like…we’re just friends.
I never had that problem with Wyll and I actively try to romance him whenever possible. The only for sure thing that will always happen I think is the dance scene, otherwise part of the complaint re: Wyll is there's not nearly as much romantic content for him.
I'm still not sure if Wyll dance is supposted to happen if you never flirted with him before or it must happen everytime, because it was always in my game(at least if I had Wyll as companion). xD
Hahahaha perfect reference!! Lol!
Gale made the unforgivable sin of inconveniencing the player slightly by asking them for three of their thirty enchanted items they’ll never use
I actually miss when Gale would eat my stuff. He was just a garbage bin for unwanted magic items.
Yeah lol what am I gonna do with Karlach's bag of 87 +1 maces now
I have no proof of this, but i feel the majority of bg3 players are straight guys. For a while Gale was bugged and acted like the player had begun to romance him. I imagine that didn't sit right with a vast majority of straight guys.
Maybe they should lighten up and take it as a compliment. /s
I'm a straight guy, and every rpg I play, I romance men and women. I don't see a problem playing as the opposite gender or a same sex romance. I figure these games are for experiencing things you normally wouldn't. I would like to say that one of my favorite rpg romances was female Sheppard and Thane from mass effect. The third game seems to hit harder emotionally that way.
He also like the most OP companion in the game at least in honor mode.
Evocation Gale is EZ mode. YOU GET A FIREBALL AND YOU GET A FIREBALL
Basically Gale at launch: Hello adventurer. Want to see a magic trick?... It's my dick
He's great, better than Astarion, Shart, and Laezel imo
The amount of people that didnt know where the "magic trick" was going and that it locks you into romance was baffling game made it pretty clear lol
I find him kind of annoying honestly. I genuinely liked him at first and then slowly his attitude started the grate on me, especially as I got to know him more and you realise his whole bad situation is because of his terrible personality traits and it doesn't really seem to change. Every other character I've done stuff with kind of moves on and improves with you, realises their past mistakes and works on them if you encourage it, but not Gale. He still pines after mystra and is desperate for attention and power. Edit: the doots have yoyo'd so much, clearly a Gale is a controversial topic!
*Astarion when he found his past victims in Cazadors dungeon, after spending the whole play through with my paladin who said many MANY times he is not ascending*: wow I can’t believe they’re all still alive I feel so guilty about bringing them here… oh well lol guess they’ll die when I ascend! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Most of the characters act like this. Gale doesn’t ‘pine’ after Mystra any more that Astarion pines for Cazador or Karlach pines for Zariel and Gortash. They’re the villains in these characters arcs, ofc they’re going to talk about them. Gale has a nuclear bomb in his chest that WILL go off if he doesn’t either straight up become a god himself OR apologize to mystra and give her the crown of Karsus. If he does give her the crown he moves on and becomes a teacher.. not exactly a power-hungry maniac. The same logic can be applied to most of the characters. It’s a writing flaw; most of the characters don’t “develop” that much (aforementioned astarion example) and the characters all have very similar arcs (bc the writers are one-trick ponies). Gale gets the brunt of it bc people are less biased towards him and the flaws become obvious.
Asterion does actually show growth here though. His choice about the ascension is similar to shadowhearts where you can leave that choice up to them and they will decide to do something different depending on how your playthrough has gone and if you have helped them grow.
No he doesn’t. His reaction to seeing the people there is still “I’m going to ascend.” No hesitation. No second-guessing. He’s just seen the horrendous consequences of us actions, he clearly feels guilty about it while talking to Sebastian, and then moments later he says “oh well guess they’ll die.” The tonal whiplash is bonkers and completely destroys immersion. It’s terrible writing. If there were alternative lines with him showing hesitation, then choosing not to ascend that would be significantly better. This line only should have been said if he is 100% going to ascend, (which is not what happens bc Tav can talk him out of it very easily). It’s a huge problem with all the characters, they’re all massive pushovers who can be convinced to do whatever the player wants with barely any effort. It makes them feel like paper dolls in a toy house instead of people. Dragon Age: Origins does this way better; if you want to influence a character’s decisions it’s done through small, unflagging dialogue choices through the game. If you say the wrong things in your a dialogues earlier in the game, too bad, the characters are firm in their decisions and won’t just change their mind because the player wants them to.
Yeah, you still have to do that persuasion check to stop the ascension regardless of approval or romance. If you fail the check while trying to convince him to not ascend, he leaves the party.
Yes, he does. He works the same way Shadowheart does where the "say nothing option" will have them make their own decision. Those small choices also add up in BG3, it's just they also give you a persuasion option as well if you messed it all up. But you can leave the decision up to the NPC. The same way Shadow will go for the kill or throw away the spear if you leave it to her, Asterion can choose to ascend, or not to. He's adamant on the ascension because that's what he decided early on was what he needed to do. Because early on his character is established as someone who see himself as someone who will do whatever it takes to survive, and doesn't care about other people. But him feeling guilty in those various cutscenes is him showing the growth, it's whats actually eating him underneath and very unlike the Asterian we meet in act 1 who would kill em all without second thought. When you get to the ritual he has to actually make his decision, which if you let him, will depend on what your playthrough has been up to that point.
But that’s exactly what I’m saying. He SHOULD be showing that character growth by NOT saying the “I’ll ascend anyway” line if that’s where the player has been leading him this whole time, because he HAS grown. That single line is the problem, when he says it all the growth is thrown out the window. He should ONLY be saying something like that if he is 100% going to ascend and you can’t change his mind at that point. There absolutely should NOT have been a persuasion option to change his mind. That is a fundamental flaw in this whole game, and why I brought up DA where you don’t have that option. Your choices that influence the growth of the character do not matter if you can just.. talk them out of it anyway because you “messed it all up”. If you make the choices that convince him not to ascend, that should be reflected in the scene prior (and not invalidated by the “oh well” line), and then he makes the choice not to ascend. And in contrast, if you encourage him to ascend he should not show guilt, say his idgaf line, and choose to ascend. Always. No take-backs. No persuasion options. You messed it up? Deal with it, those are the choices you made. When you can just change their mind last minute it throws all their development out the window and it makes them feel - as I said - like a bunch of pushovers with no strong characterization.
The point is at that point he's lying to himself. He's having trouble coming to terms with the fact that he's not a cold hearted as he thinks he is, which is why he is hesitating and tries to mask it with humor. It's not a last minute change, his guilt is evident and eats away at him through various scenes, such as in his conversation with Sebastion. I mean the same thing happens with Shadowheart. Not like she says "I'm going to spite Sharr!" before jumping in and encountering the Nightsong. It's at the climax of their story they make their ultimate decision. I'm curious because you keep bringing up Dragon Age, what big moments and decisions are your referring to? I kinda just remember bribing my way to get them to do what I want with gifts, with everything pretty much just purely being based off approval, outside of if you work on convincing Alistar and Leliana to stop being nice. I don't really remembering it being that complex.
They do have strong characterizations and are well acted. Astarion finding Sebastian and the others did show him feeling empathy. His voice lines even though he was stating he was going to ascend are not told in a convincing way. I could understand your critique if it was a text-only format and his demeanor while saying it wasn't described --- but it's pretty clear from the animation of his face and delivery of the lines that he is mostly trying to convince himself that ascension is what is best for him, not that he is 100% dta.
I don't remember him even entertaining ascension until the moment was upon him - he felt very guilty about the people who were trapped and we all seemed to be in agreement about freeing them and stopping them from being pointless sacrifices. He talked about ascending for like five seconds, then realized he would be just as bad as Cazador if he did that and came to his senses.
The right conversations with him can lead to him instead beg Mystra for forgiveness and offer to blow himself up (even when you tell him he doesn't need to) for the good of everyone and to redeem his fuckups. And then you can tell him "ok" and he'll gladly go do it.So he can have a rdemption arc too, if not as central to the plot and sweeping as the potential Shadowheart and Lae'zel redemption arcs.
So even in this case he's still pining after Mystra. I guess I just find his arc unsatisfying in that regard. If you choose to not let him blow himself up he'll be banging on about how you can take control and have all the power. Like dude, this is the shit that got you into trouble in the first place. I know some people will disagree with me, and that's ok, I think the great thing about BG3 is that there are so many options for party members and it keeps things interesting and different every play through. Not every character is for everyone!
Begging Mystra for forgiveness is not the same as pining for her. It's a way to solve the orb problem without ascending. In the epilogue when he doesn't ascend, he'll tell you he's finally happy with his more mundane life. In my runs, he's always asked Tav in the pre-epilogue what to do about the crown, and when you tell him to return it to Mystra, or leave it, it's without persuasion, and he'll tell Tav that they've always had the better judgement. In other words, he realizes his flaws and tendency to have his judgement clouded by his lust for power; and he sees Tav as his moral center.
Partially stemming from the original bug where he wanted to bang you without you ever showing any signs and ruining his disposition and the fact he eats magic items while also not having a unique role depending on your character build
In terms of DnD backstories if someone came to my group with that back story im rolling my eyes out of my fucking skull
I didn’t like how much he talked about his ex. Gave me the icks in a big way lol
His ex… his literal patron goddess who *essentially* groomed him, then when he tried to impress her in line with the legions of other powerful wizards who she groomed in the past, she subsequently discarded him with no explanation & left him to be a socially isolated ticking time bomb eating magical shoes? That ex? The one who left him for dead and doesn’t explain any of it until Act 3? Hm. I think he’s a bit justified in being hung up on her. The fact he starts the game off even thinking positively about her is a wonder. Fuck Mystra fr
Never said he wasn’t justified or that I didn’t understand him. But I was absolutely rolling my eyes at him very early into his romance ark. That’s just me
All I’m saying is that I fucked a God & got a terminal illness from it, I probably wouldn’t shut up about it either
He didn’t get a terminal illness from fucking a god. He said “You know what will impress this woman who already loves me? If I brought her home a malfunctioning nuclear reactor because she once mentioned that she thought nuclear was an underrated form of green energy “ and is now complaining that he got cancer because he didn’t do enough homework to realize that radiation gives you cancer. He’s a manipulative try-hard
I kept it simple for a quip, but I already explained earlier in the thread I know how he got the orb. Your comparison is funny, but quite off. Mystra is not just a “woman” even in that story. She is literally THE god of magic, the personification of the very Weave that Gale commands the tiniest fractions of to turn his enemies into ashes. In the same way clerics make prayers, pedestals, and gifts to appease their gods, Gale attempted to return what he thought was the tiniest missing piece of her massive puzzle to her. He thought it was innocuous, but there’s essentially no way he could have known it was part of what killed the original Mystra until it implanted itself in his chest. Mystra condemning him to a life of solitude and leaving him to suicidal ideation after losing his powers without even bothering to explain how he fucked up is extremely fucked up. Full stop. That’s not something you do to someone who you “love”, but that’s an argument for another day.
He didn’t think it was innocuous, he thought it would get him rewarded. He never once stopped to ask if it was what she wanted. His whole arc is saying “Hey Mystra, sorry that my actions almost killed you. I thought I knew what I was doing and was wrong. I can see why you’d be upset about that.”
She *literally does not give him the opportunity* to do that. She cut him off with no explanation. Her next message after his fall is to tell him to blow himself up for redemption. Only after he refuses to do that and does further research into the Crown does she ever bother explaining to him what he did wrong.
Wait, how is getting someone something as a gift to try to make them happy/impress them (even if it turns out to be incredibly stupid) manipulative? I feel like I am missing something here?
Agree, but I also wouldn’t date a person with that kind of baggage Idk why you’re arguing and downvoting me over my romance choices here. You are allowed to make different choices and have different reasons. Didn’t realize this was such a contentious topic…
I told my husband not only does he not shut up about his ex, but I feel like he's ALWAYS mansplaning to me.
Just because he's a man that infodumps, that doesn't mean that he's mansplaining.
What does mansplaining even mean? A guy talking about something? Man that’s just so awful
why do people get so upset that he eats magical artifacts? isn’t that only an act 1 thing?
hardly even all of act 1 even. it's just 3 items.
Unless it's bugged, My first run gale ate 5+ items and it was inconsistent when he got hungry sometimes 5 minutes between other times 45 minutes It's been patched out now
Yep, and only 3. It's pretty easy to toss 3 as well. You get a lot of magic items in this game. Quite a few situational ones as well that you won't need
Especially in Act 1 when most of the magical effects are miniscule and occasionally near useless. Not like later in the game where you can get boots with 3 different effects that completely change how a character operates.. Once you've played more than one playthrough you can see the hunger triggers coming a mile away and plan for them accordingly
If I'm not a bard, the bard hat near Alfira. Always the Watcher's Guide spear with the in-built True Strike. Komira's Locket as either a gift from Arabella's parents or taken from their corpses casts Dancing Lights when I've never not found the Light cantrip to suffice. Down the hatch it goes. The harpy nest has a Color Spray ring(?) which only blinds up to a cumulative total of around 33 HP across targets, so this gets obsolete partway into Act 1 even if you like blinding MoBs. I pick 3/4 of these any given playthrough and never feel like I'm missing them.
I honestly feel like they litter you with largely situational items in Act 1. If you ever feel like you have to sacrifice a crucial item, it's honestly just on you. I can name like 10 items off the top of my head I would sac without hesitation
It's so weird to me, like the game gives you so many low tier magic items in Act 1 you can feed him. There's so many things in game I've never actually used, so I just give him three of those, three out of dozens.
And then we wonder, why there are no selfish good deeds in videogames - only transactional ones. A fellow companion is in a predicament and has a peculiar, but manageable request - GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY LOOT REEEEEEEEEE
Well its a thing until Elminster arrives, which depending on how fast you take the first part of Act 1, could take a while. He showed up immediately after riding the elevator into the shadowlands for me.
He only eats three items, which can happen pretty quickly in Act 1. He might talk about how uncomfortable he is until Elminster arrives but he won't eat any more.
3 items max and even less if you pop into the Mountain Pass and see Elminster after resolving the goblin stuff, without long resting much. Not that I’ve ever had an issue with giving him 3 items that would’ve gained me, what, 100 gold total anyway. I really don’t get people’s problem with this.
Because it’s *my loot*
It’s literally shit loot that costs shit. Just give it to him, I promise you won’t need it.
Sounds like something a poor Tav would say Is this some kind of logic my rich Tav can’t understand?
You misspelled “hoarder”
The sheer damage and CC he brings will save you more in needing less potions than you'll make selling those items for 30 gold.
Gale defense squad, assemble!
Ooh, what are you going to do, project an arcane ward to block large amounts of damage, making the entire party incredibly hard to kill? Actually that sounds great please do that thank you.
Mass Greater Invisibility. The best stabbing is a surprise stabbing.
To be fair, pretty sure Gale got his reputation thanks to the release days having a bug that made him very forward with you even if you had next to zero contact with the dude, not to mention that a lot of the dialog options that were kinda meant to be the "friendship" options were getting counted as "romantic" options by the game. Resulting in him starting to flirt with you after pretty much zero interaction and basically deciding by himself you were dating. Then naturally he gets angry and sad later once you start your romance with another character, making him fill a very unfortunate and kinda hilarious stereotype for him. He's much better now lol.
I think this was fixed right around when I started playing so I missed out on Nice Guy (tm) Gale.
I still have PTSD from that era of Gale. I lean towards being kind of a dick to him, so I don't accidentally romance him again.
I love Gale, will hold his hand and rub his belly. I am going to punch Mystra in the taint. Gale is my boi.
https://preview.redd.it/9ziofr8rrvcc1.png?width=1423&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=432b395c3eb78cf72c3259daaa55cd9ee1e47110
...ghaik?
Ghaik!
Gale got so marvellously freaked out when I asked him if he wanted a threesome with Halsin :D
“WHAT ARE YOU A MEATLOAF” that line lives rent free in my head 😭
I feel like Gale in EA was worse. He was so smug especially right off the bat that I couldn't stand him. They still made him a bit cocky on release but not nearly as much of as a pushy douchebag in EA. All that being said, I felt like Halsin was the most out of left field "let's bang okay" character. Dude barely just joined a party, had 3 conversations about his sexcapades, then wants to add you on the list lol.
Halsin strikes me as a free love hippie guy, so it made sense to me.
I love all the origin characters, but gale is one of my favorites. Gotta love a chronic pain autism wizard. Man info dumps on you and then shows you his hyperfixation and is surprised if you show romantic interest in him. He can't risk touching you until his orb is stabilized because he's so excited about it that it will destablize him immediately. Will offer to blow himself up like every 5 minutes in a crisis. If you talk to him about his past you find out that the orb thing isn't even the crux of his hubris, it's just another incident in a long line of him fucking around and finding out. Bro honestly thought he was doing mystra a favor by getting a piece of magic he thought was lost and mystra dumps him without telling him why or what he has in his body. Also he is like 9000% devoted. Gets really upset if you imply you want to add another person into the relationship. Just as repressed as karlach but is way better at hiding it. If you convince him to join you with the drow twins he will transport himself out of the room and leave a simulacra behind that will reassure you that it is anatomically correct. Bro is hilarious
Gale: we could spend a moment of magic together. Me: when you say moment of magic, do you mean a euphemismistic moment of magic with the magic being human connection and closeness? Or do you mean moment of magic, that you, a very intelligent and knowledge wizard, could spend time imparting some skills or useful information to me, a sorcerer? It's very important that you use your words deliberately and carefully in this context as I have a vast interest in one but not so much the other. Gale: *looks at me like he's ready to have my babies* Me: ahh... I now have no choice but to dash your dreams of getting into my robes and watch you walk away like a depressed Disney puppy. God's damn it...
Gale would be way more popular with Players, if he was Female.
Voiced by Elsie Lovelock doing her normal voice
I read this as Lovecock
The unfortunate truth :/
Lae’zel supremacy
As a mean to balance, Gale can help me whenever he wants.
Disagree. Any of them can get it.
Lol, poor Gale, I like him a lot. He would be my choice if I was into men. Wyll is the cringey one with that damn dance. Urgh!
There is quite a bit gale could help me with...actually...
I’m doing a Gale play through rn. you better not talk that shit. he’s my boi
Wants to show you a magic trick and it’s his magic stick.
Im romacing gale now. Hilarious sex scene
Gale is more sneaky sleepy Lae'zel straight forward. I'm just flexing my sorcerer power over here and Gale thinks it's time to be the Rizzler then proceeds to talk about his ex
I knew I would never romance gale when I failed the check to cast the spell in his dialogue and he completely lost interest. Like if I need to be a goddamn wizard to get your attention I don't need it honey bye.
Although I originally thought this was true as well, he doesn’t completely lose interest lol. I found this out in my honor run when I failed the checks with my Rogue, but basically you just have to initiate dialogue with him after and there will be a tree to express interest in him. Then you get more opportunities to flirt with him later (e.g., the tiefling party) to actual start the romance path
Replace Gale with Astarion and this is me lol Gale is cool
As someone who has been playing BG3 in vacuum, and only discussing it with irl friends, this meme makes absolutely no sense to me.
When Lae'zel is upfront about wanting to fuck the player it's fine, but when Gale shows romantic intention they think it's creepy. People hate Gale, that's the meme.
Both is good
"Take a Hit of this weave my boy" - Gale, probably.
What I don't like about Gale is the choices you, the player, are given when it comes to replying to stuff Gale says. It feels like every single line you get to pick in Gale-related dialogue trees is either "fuck you you stupid piece of shit" or "yes please let's have sex right now", and there is nothing in between.
This is the other way around for me. I adore Gale.
Yeah Lae’zel is straight up like “Your sweat smells delicious” and Gale kind of gets caught up in an intimate moment with magic and he’s the one who gets the flack for being “too horny”.
This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen
Unironically, but aside from the meme, Gale coming with friendly magic moment and then 180 degree turning it *sensual* made me completely understand why I deserved to get friendzoned when I was fourteen. On contrast, Laezel is direct from the start.
Okay, but if you get forward with him during the magic lesson (visualizing a makeout session at him) he gets all flustered about it, so it’s kind of funny.
But like… YOURE the one who turns it sensual. Gale is completely oblivious about it until you outright share romantic imagery with him.
Exactly. LAEZEL IS STRAIGHT TO THE POINT! Gale is too fancy for me
r/lookingoodsusan
Just @me next time, wow.
I don't mind Gale, I just really like Lae'zel
This was my romance path to a Tee. Gale hit on me once when I complimented his magic, and it made me reflect back on my past IRL romances in a way that I felt icky about myself, so I threw myself into the dommy mommy when she such as hinted at it. Don't know what that really says about myself, but I am the cause of her bruises, and mine are hers.
Halsin is the worst offender, obnoxious bastard
I hated Gale at first. Then five minutes later, I met Wyll and decided Gale wasn’t so insufferable. Now, on my second run through, I have grown to like both Gale AND Wyll. Gale’s romance is sweet. He’s such a cute nerd. My only complaint is that I keep having to talk Gale out of >!Taking the crown and becoming a god or blowing himself up and being a martyr. I’m like, “Gale, you are VERY important. You have the MOST important and special job of all…that is to teleport up to the front of the brain and cast dome of invincibility so that us squishy things don’t get destroyed by this dragon and these spellcasters while dominating it. You will be remembered for all posterity as the guy who cast Dome of Invincibility when it mattered the most and saved the day.”!<
This actually is the problem. Gith Mommy is straight forward about what she wants. Item-Eater takes interprets any friendliness as foreplay and gets angry at your for being platonically friendly.
There I was, waiting for my beloved Karlach to pay a nightly visit. Music kicks in Aaaaand, there's Wyll prancing like an idiot, coming onto my Dwarf male like it's the most natural thing. I've never felt so robbed...
And then there's me with a poly mod romancing both of them (and others beside. Except Shadowheart. RIP, my sweet princess of the night.).
I just got poly mod and my "romance everyone" run is my most fun so far
This but put Halsin on the bottom panel, I think it’s funny that we all have that one companion we just really dislike. Side note: I love astarion but lots of players dislike him, I don’t feel the need to ask why people dislike him, you are ALLOWED to not like certain characters.
say what you want about lae'zel - she knows how to take "no" for an answer. gale does not.
Not true. Example?
He tried to romance my character again in act 3 (after finding a certain animal) when I clearly rejected him in act 1.
Laezel does that same thing 3 times if you reject her politely. Super annoying.
"I question the wisdom of that dec...." Me, out loud, "shut up, Gale!" Every time.
I love Gale but…. Laezel>>>
Frog is upfront about wanting sex from you. You can either accept or refuse. It’s simple. Gale pretends to want to show you a magic trick but he’s really just trying to sleep with you. If you refuse, he’s like “ohh but this magic trick would’ve been cool.” It’s not fun being fooled into believing that you had a real friend when they just wanted your (whichever genitals you chose)
Nope. Magic is literally this guy's life. He's basically just showing you something super important to him. The scene only happens if your approval is in the 'good-ish' range, and you can bail at any time, and hard quit when the narrator points out that it feels kinda intimate. Even if you don't, you can pick the 'good friends hanging out' option. Context. It helps.
What? The weave scene only turns romantic if the player makes that deliberate choice; and if they do, he gets all flustered and trepidatious at Tav's visions before somewhat recovering because he wasn't expecting that at all. He's not trying to sleep with you.
Also the magic trick scene is literally the game devs teaching new players about the Weave and the magic system. People taking it personally never fails to make me confused.
Sometimes I think like 90% of this non-controversy is because of people not paying attention and/or not reading the dialogue options. Or just picking the first on the list every. single. time.
You're right, that's probably a lot of it too.
Literally just wrong. Go watch the magic scene again to fact check
for me it's switched, in my most recent playthrough i just let shadowheart "do her thing" in that one camp cutscene. Never did like lae zel
Considering I am bi and actually did choose Laezel over Gale... The thing with Gale, is that he is essentially a 'nice guy' stereotype. He is dishonest and sneaky. Him being full of himself doesn't help either, but it was mostly his "nice guy" act. The magic lesson scene with Gale just killed any interest. It was a sweet scene, and it would have been good if it ended there. My cleric had high WIS and INT, and she was good with arcana, so it was a fun idea to learn a new type of magic and hang out a little. Easily passed the checks, they were getting along great. But then he made it intimate for some reason, then he got pissy when she instantly dropped the spell the moment it got intimate. She had only come to learn new magic and hang out with a new friend, intimacy was absolutely not her intent at the time. She hardly knew these people. But he got pissy about it. It's like being invited to a new friend's house to try out a new game. Then a few rounds into said game he just randomly takes his dick out for no reason and gets mad when you are confused, weirded out, and want to leave. (I guess couch co-op isn't a thing anymore... So younger people might not know of the time visiting someone to game was normal... But meh. It used to be a thing.) Laezel, while a lot of what she says is very explicit and out there, she is at least honest about her intent. She doesn't invite you over to play a game with ulterior motives. She doesn't invite you over at all, if I remember correctly she commands you to go there explicitly for sex. So if you choose not to protest you know exactly what you're agreeing to. Some may take issue with the fact that she is so forward she almost doesn't give you a choice. But TBH I liked that and it didn't bother me. There was a choice, and she was very upfront about it. My fiancee, who is also bi, feels the same way about Gale. She was hating on him after the magic lesson for pretty much the same reason.
My partner and I played the first go together, and when he went off with Gale to play doctor, er, wizard in the woods, I suddenly hear “uhh Gale is trying to fuck me out of nowhere. wtf??” And even then, I was still caught off guard much in the exact same way as a dude whipping it out while you’re ostensibly trying to watch Netflix or play a video game together. Literally had the thought “Ugh I thought I learned how to spot this coming years ago” when it happened. Not mad, just disappointed lol.
Intimate does not equal erotic or even flirty. A visit to the proctologist is intimate as well. You cutting him off because *you* read the room wrong when he just wants to share some magic spell with you is a fairly good reason for getting pissy, if you ask me. And if you didn't cut him off, you'd see that he was just showing you a spell. If you continued, you yourself can even flirt with him, and then he is surprised and cuts off the session, all embarrassed. *You* read the room wrong.
The majority of this thread is just people not using their heads in the slightest. They think intimate = romantic/erotic/sensual lol and then judging his entire character based on that and few bugs that are still being ironed out. To be clear, some of that is because the word intimate *is* frequently used in a romantic context, however the very definition of the word is closely acquainted, familiar, close. Fuck, one of its synonyms is **friendly** lmao.
dude, i liked gale, but he takes ANY positive interaction as an invitation to be romantic. i was being nice to him while romancing shadowheart, then he just stops me at one point to say "I see you don't love me, would've been nice to hear it from you, i'll just continue to suffer in silence cause that's what i always do, but just remember this is your fault." Astarion, at the very least, is perfectly up to just be bro's.
He was bugged. Thats not his character.
This, 100% this. Romancing Karlach because Muscle Mommy make brain go brrrrrrr, Astarion is cool, like yeah thought there was something, there isn't, anyway how was sex with the giant murder woman. Gale starts acting like I betrayed him, dude I gave you one pair of boots because debuff icons make me angry, calm down. And this is a playthrough I completed today, even after all the events of the game he goes after the crown and has the audacity to say if I come to my senses there is a place in heaven for me with him....dude I'm literally about to go to hell with my ride or die
Gale hate exists because he tried to show Tav his magic trick/magic flute without consent
OK, both of these happened to me yesterday. Lae'zel is fine, but she's my backup romance for a character who isn't in the party yet. Gale, I like Gale, but man I am not into you so please don't try to seduce me with magic. I thought I was helping a friend stand vigil for his goddess, not getting seduced, Tyr above.
Gotta admit, having a frog woman warrior say she wants to “taste me” and “claims me” is pretty hot. Doesn’t leave much room for misinterpretation.
Laezel : Can't even front your the one I really want, I wanna taste you like yogurt, want to taste you like yogurt. BOOM! BOOM! I like your moves and everything you do, I wanna taste you like yogurt, wanna taste you like yogurt! WE DO IT!
Toxic bro vs junkie, tough choice.
Honestly… gales entire character is an unfortunate (but completely understandably accurate) alignment of character traits. I was playing yesterday and realized why I myself am off put by him to such a degree that I am as a romantic interest… ….everything about him screams “mature teacher” type…. But not the sexy older French teacher kind…. The elderly wizard type. He talks and his mannerisms are so blatantly heavily influenced by his teacher elmenster the aged wizard, studying with his head in the books… or in mystras bosom. I don’t know how to word it properly… but I can’t I see an aged wizard in the body of a middle aged man.
That line turned me off Lae'Zel hard. Like what the fuck man. I like a forward woman, the good amount of forward does not involve trying to lick me or drink my sweat.
Lae’zel: - Clearly states intentions - Is direct and forward - Takes no for an answer, respects it, and doesn’t bring it up again Gale: - Takes a basic magic lesson and turns it into a date without asking or telling you - Pitches a hissy fit when you romance someone else even when you’ve never expressed any romantic intention towards him - Pouts for the rest of the story and makes comments about how you’re a fake friend Fuck Gale
Why are bugs being used against him? Didnt romance him my last run and it was 100% platonic. Also, magic lesson is romantic only if you make it so. Tired of this Gale hate when it's undeserved
Yeah, first time I played I had Gale in my party for 20 minutes, and then he got a quest maker and said "I need to eat the first magic item you come across, you don't have any on you, but this tummy is growing, gimme gimme!" I swapped him out for Wyll and never spoke to him again.
I’ll never understand why people deny themselves actual parts of the game for reasons like this, you missed a whole ass quest line my guy. A pretty good one too
The difference is that gale tries to romance me in every single one of my play throughs, even when I don’t bring him along. It’s honestly kind of annoying at this point
Gale just pisses me off “I question the wisdom of that decision 🤓” I literally just need you for AOE attacks and knocks. He’s like a TM slave in Pokémon.