One of the things I see a lot in how people bash Gale is because he communicates romance intellectually. Most people want a companion romance that feels reciprocating rather than one that actually begins with reciprocation.
To simplify the argument, since there are many ways to experience the game and thus the companions and their dialogue can take on a different flavor entirely based on how the player approaches them, I will be approaching the common complaint of other magic classes engaging with Gale's first romance scene in the game.
Gale universally asks if the player is familiar with magic, which is outright abrasive for a character who is a druid, a bard, a cleric or paladin, etc. It feels especially invalidating for someone playing a sorcerer who, according to the canon lore, are literally part of the Weave. So the recoil is understandable.
But I love figuring out characters and their psychology so let's have a fun time.
Other magic users have fundamentally different relationships with the Weave.
Clerics are bestowed magic by their patron gods, which removes the need to really understand how or why. The class functions as a parallel to real life religious beliefs. You can genuinely be touched by something beyond yourself, but it is in a manner that bypasses the need to understand and instead thrives on mysticism. The more abstract the relationship to the magic itself is, the stronger the relationship between patron deity and the cleric becomes and thus more powerful the magic itself is.
This is also the case for Warlocks. Their abilities are facilitated through a contract with rules and guidelines and punishments for not upholding the contract in the future.
While clerics have a very religious and paternal dynamic, warlocks have a cold and corporate one.
Druids see magic as synonymous with nature, and in the mythology they are dead on. The Weave itself is a fabric of life and it is just as diverse as nature in how it manifests. But it is limited by what one considers "nature".
The best way I can describe it is Druids are biologists, wizards are physicists.
If you only see nature as animals, plants, and life, you fail to see the bigger picture of how all those rely on laws of gravity, thermodynamics, and relativity. Life exists from non-life principles.
Meanwhile, Bards feel their way through the Weave. Their relationship is more metaphysical in that they interact with the Weave through a somatic connection like a philosopher thinks of life rather than a scientist. They intuitively connect to the parts they understand so deeply that it is like a mind-body connection.
Like how it feels when a really good song slaps.
And Sorcerers just are the Weave, as I said. But they are not the entire Weave. While magic flows through them like blood flows through veins, one does not need to understand how blood works for it to still flow. While they have the most intimate connection to the Weave, it actually means they are statistically more likely to have little understanding of magic as something that isn't directly themself.
And imposing one's self onto anything severely limits how much you can understand outside of yourself. It is narcissism.
Which is why I am always amused by how Gale is often called a narcissist. Arrogant, absolutely. But Gale is defined by immense curiosity. His education is spurred by wanting to know and understand as much as possible. And when he feels affection for someone else, he wants to share what he knows.
Gale isn't dismissing the magic of other classes, he is eager to connect over magic. It's his life, it's his passion, it's who he is. And his request to expand someone else's horizon of understanding is a genuine act of love from him.
He isn't in love with the physical, he's in love with the person, no matter what form they are in. And he shows love by wanting to bathe in experiences of the mind through sharing what he knows.
