The other day I encountered Gale's 'any undue, uh, excitement might trigger the orb' line in the wild for the first time. I of course already knew of that line's existence from a million smutty fanfics, in which it's pretty uniformly read as a euphemistic way of saying that if he gets a boner then the orb is going to go kaboom. What surprised me was the context in which he said it: I'd asked him to tell me what he liked about me, and he told me there were too many reasons for him to list 'and besides, any undue excitement' etc etc.
And of course you can still just read this as him saying 'if I start to think about why I like you, I'll start thinking about how much I want to fuck you, and then boner and then orb goes kaboom'. But although I think the writers (and Gale) definitely had the sexual innuendo in mind for this line, I also think that primarily he really does just mean excitement.
The kind of excitement he hasn't felt in a year. The kind of excitement he hasn't felt about a potential lover for much longer than that. The kind of excitement you feel when you meet someone you really click with, and you're starting to think they just might feel the same way about you. The kind of excitement that's breathless and giddy and causes your heart to race with much more than just sexual desire. The kind of excitement that's fundamentally an expression of hope.
And that's the thing that's really dangerous. Not that he might get a boner. That if he allows himself to hope – to look at something new in his life and set aside all the reasons it's impossible and let himself just feel the wonder of it, let himself imagine for a moment that he might somehow deserve it – then the orb, which after all is linked to his emotions just as much as to his body and his magic, might roar to life and break free of its chains and destroy everything he cares about.
No wonder his first reaction to Mystra's decree is acceptance. He's spent a whole year literally unable to hope for anything better for himself than limiting the collateral damage.
Did we all know Gale was once hospitalized for a long illness? Because he was once hospitalized for a long illness.
An interesting tidbit that parallels Gale’s later self-confinement in his tower after being afflicted with the Orb.
We don’t learn if this hospice stint occurred in childhood or adulthood. But “pox” makes me think of childhood illnesses, and a long hospitalization seems like exactly the time when a lonely smart kid would learn to find his solace in books rather than people.
I love the idea of Gale whose love makes him dangerous. Gale who was Mystra’s Chosen once, and whose devotion runs deeper than his own life. Gale who would do anything, destroy anyone if it saved Tav. If it kept them safe. It’s not toxic; it’s not possessive in a way that restricts Tav’s autonomy or choice—but gods help the fool who tries to hurt them as long as they still choose him.
I posted about this a while back, but I love the idea of Tav falling in battle and Gale erupting, razing the battlefield with uncontrolled raw Weave, overdrawing and destroying anything that threatens them. Channeling more Weave than his body can handle, becoming again, for just a few minutes, the divinity-touched archmage he was when he was Mystra’s Chosen. Forcing life back into their body without a spell, pouring Weave into them until their breath returns. The party tries to approach and a blast decimates the ground at their feet—not meant to hurt, not meant to wound, just a warning. Don’t come closer. Don’t touch them. He doesn’t look up.
It’s not meant to be romantic. It’s not meant to be a “good” decision. It’s just who he is. He loved Mystra with the intensity of a devotee and a lover, and that’s the same framework he applies to other loves. His devotion IS terrifying. His love is deep, intense, and it is beautiful, it’s the same love that makes him attentive to Tav’s needs, the same love that makes him a romantic and someone who feels deeply and poetically. But it also makes him incredibly dangerous when someone crosses that line. Calm, with the certainty of a man who knows exactly what he will do for the person he loves. It IS scary. It IS something that probably makes the party wary afterward. He’s not sorry. He would do it again. It’s a price he will pay every time.
Gale is not a scary man. He is gentle, endearingly charming, affectionate, kind. He treats Tav with the utmost respect for their autonomy and capability. But his devotion is not a choice. It is not something that can be reduced in intensity. It’s at the core of who he is. He is a man with the potential for great tyranny and cruelty based on his ability and prodigy, and he chooses goodness—but it should not be mistaken for weakness.
There are a lot of great “Gale Approves” moments in the game, but I think my favorite might be one of the earliest (or possibly the very first?) one you can get.
It happens right after you ask him about himself and he gives you his “cat, wine, library” dialogue, ending with “didn’t that paint enough of a picture?”
If you press further by trying to peer into his mind via the tadpole and you succeed, you’ll only get a glimpse before he angrily shuts you out, and you’ll earn his disapproval:
He’s pissed, and rightly so.
However! In the next dialogue, if you tell him curiosity made you do it, he not only immediately forgives you, he ALSO gives you approval for it (thereby canceling out his prior disapproval):
I love this interaction for two reasons:
First, because it instantly tells you everything you need to know about Gale—he’s reserved until he gets to know you, he’s curious with a hint of mischief, and he’s very sweet and forgiving.
And second, because the whole interaction can be summed up as:
SO I was thinking about how strongly Tara dislikes Gale's in-game hair and beard and it made me wonder if it was originally a result of him locking himself away from everyone but then sort of became intentional later. Also brace yourselves for some character analysis which seems to be unpopular in fan works but is interesting to me:
Gale knows he's handsome.
There always seemed to be a bit of a mismatch between how people depict Gale's confidence in fanworks and how he presents himself in-game to me?
One of his very first interactions at camp he does, admittedly cheekily, play off his Mirror Image as fastidious grooming habits, and dismisses the spell with a sly little "Handsome devil, isn't he?" It's playful and could be read as a bluff, but it does exist and doesn't feel particularly misplaced. This is a man that fucked God. I think that is great assurance that you must on some level be looking pretty good on the regular.
He also thinks he's charming, which he is! He has a line somewhere about having a dazzling smile. He calls Karlach "rough around the edges" but that he supposed he could be "smooth enough for the both of them." He is entirely confident that he can befriend Minthara and is the only one to even think to attempt it.
He is not a shy lover, either, once you are in private. Some of his lines are straight up scandalous. He may be a bit shy and bluster when you're the one to bring it up, but later on he is shameless. The "For now, I'll keep my mouth shut. Unless you have use for it, of course" line made my jaw drop. ALSO when you ask Gale if you were his first aside from Mystra, he says no, you are not. But you are the first AFTER Mystra. In fact, Loroakkan insults Gale by implying it was NOT by magical merit that he gained her favor, and all that merit did was insure he lost it.
Gale's insecurity is about his sense of self worth, and how the metric he judges his own worthiness is by what he can do, not who he is.
I think the reason it bothers me to see this TYPE of insecurity attributed to Gale is that he is our token "bookish nerd" character, and it feels too easy to just assign the one "nerd" character the traits "inexperienced virgin who wishes he looked more like the leading man but actually the lead romance thinks he is sweet despite all his shortcomings." Especially when there's almost nothing in game to draw this conclusion from. And I dunno, maybe some people think that formula is still satisfying as a story but I think its boring. This dude is an absolute dweeb who is also handsome as all hell which is one of the many reasons you are able to pay attention to his forty-five minute long speech about the history of gnolls. He does that and then shoots Astarion down in the same breath. Let autistic people be hot. That's allowed.
“Gods, I’d pay a king’s ransom for a hot, lavender-scented bath – minstrels serenading as I close my eyes and let the water’s warmth dissolve all woes.” 🛁🫧💜
Edit: this one and my other art are available in print on shop on Redbubble and Inprnt !
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