Dark!gale - Tumblr Posts
I think it's what makes him so real, so relatable. I know there's this darkness inside me, but I keep in in check. Gale is honest all the time, he just have different parts of his personality.
Hi! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Dark Gale! I feel like the concept I'm thinking about (read: gnawing at the pulp of my brain) is OK, but could be better. Any insight you have is greatly appreciated!
Hello! Thank you for asking about dark Gale! Do you have a snack and a drink? Alrighty. So.
Gale to me is a pretty dark character already. His ambition becomes obsession, and he seeks to cross boundaries he should not cross out of (well placed) anger and a deep insecurity.
On first meeting he is sweet, kind of bumbly, personable. The first thing you do to help him out is take his hand and wrench him from a portal. It’s a far cry from Astarion holding a knife to your throat, Lae’zel pointing a sword at you, Shadowheart judging you for keeping Lae’zel’s company. First meeting Wyll, he says he needs to kill a devil. You meet Karlach because you’re trusting him that she’s a devil and needs to die. All of them have some kind of violence attached to them whether that’s from being martial themselves or in Karlach’s case the huge amounts of blood you follow to get to her.
Gale? Nah. He’s just stuck. He needs help, you pull him out, he shakes your hand, assures you your kindness will be repaid. If you send him to camp instead of recruiting him then and there, he says he’ll cook for you! And what he’s done here is ingratiate himself with Tav, make himself as indespensable as possible by volunteering an essential task, and he’s offered knowledge regarding ceremorphosis.
Later in camp, you can talk to him about what’s going on and he’ll compliment you (‘you’re a good sport’ / ‘spot on’) and if he’s a little arrogant well that’s because he has the skill to back it up and he is kind and he does cook, so you forgive it. You get to the grove and if you’re a good aligned Tav you step in front of Arka’s crossbow, you save Arabella, you rescue Mirkon from the harpies. Gale approves. Alright then, he’s a pacifist? He likes kids. This is a safe guy. And you can forgive the magic item consumption because well. He’s a good guy and he wouldn’t hurt anyone and he’s useful around camp and you seem to get along well. That’s fine. It’s like a chronic illness. We can manage that.
And then he can’t keep quiet anymore. The consumption of the weave hardly has an effect now. His guilt compels him to be honest, so he gathers everyone together. He calls himself a walking shadow, he admits to being a magical prodigy and his relationship with Mystra. Alright then. He used to be far more powerful than he is now, well so was everyone. The man clearly resents Mystra for not allowing him the kind of power he felt entitled to.
He kneels in front of Tav- kneels, this powerful mage, because is is trying to get them to see- and lets them into the dark. All this time, he has been walking around with parisitic magic in his chest, dark magic, something corrupting. He’s not said a word about the danger he poses not only to the party but to a good chunk of the surrounding area.
Gale is deeply self preserving. He can be persuaded to stay after massacring the grove by saying there’s strength in them staying together, in the survival instinct. By contrast Karlach just ups and leaves. His morality is grey and it’s what makes him interesting. In the grove, if you say it sounds like he has something to confess, he pointedly asks Tav if they’re without vice or sin, and then says no. He doesn’t think they’re quite that boring. He will bend the rules or break them if needed, it doesn’t take much to nudge him onto the darker path. He is just like Astarion in that his insecurity manifests as hunger for power and control. Unlike Astarion however, Gale is a rich boy who voluntarily isolated himself, and where Astarion becomes gentler as his story goes on, Gale becomes insistent and obsessive and even possessive. He says he’s getting that crown ‘for us’ in his act 3 scene, and… no he’s not. He’s still doing it for himself, it’s just now he can tell himself it’s for something greater because he’s in love. Just like Astarion insisting that ascending will keep him AND Tav safe. No. They’re both wrong, and frankly they’re two sides of the same coin.
Nevermind his combat lines, all misconceptions about him being a pacifist are utterly shattered when he admits to Tav that it turns him on to see them post battle, sweaty and bloody. He clearly revels in it all. I don't think it'd take much for him to go seeking a fight just for the thrill of it.
And if you happen to dump him, well… he reminds Tav of the bomb in his chest. He says maybe it’s best not to shake such a vessel as himself. The threat is subtle, but it is there. Hells, if you take him to meet Astarion alone he threatens to incinerate the vampire if he uses that knife on Tav. He’s not a gentle person and he’s created this incredible persona that hides it well under layers and layers of politeness, kindness, amiable chat, a willingness to take important tasks off Tav’s hands.
This isn’t to say I don’t absolutely love the guy. He is wonderful in many, many ways, but that undercurrent of darkness runs deeper than first appears.