#Gale defence
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dreamingofthewild · 4 months ago
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Something else about Gale’s evil ending is I just knew people would take him throwing away his earring and trashing the Mystra statue was going to be taken as a “Leaving Mystra is the bad choice, see? It’s in his evil ending!”
Larian DOES kind of treat Gale a bit dirty when it comes to Mystra. The entire theme of the game is all companions have been taken advantage of by someone, Gale is not the random who isn’t including in this. Larian just didn’t pull it off well because his good ending does include being back in some form of Mystra’s good graces despite spending the entire game rejecting her for what she did to him. This ending I think doesn’t represent rejection of Mystra being a bad thing though, I think it’s just a way to show Gale being so consumed by his hurt that he decides to approach Mystra and perhaps even the other gods with harm. In the end, I’m upset the only ending we get of him removing his earring is in his *evil* ending….
I’ve seen folks argue that Mystra cannot be abusive because they met as adults (as if that solidifies the massive power imbalance, the in game line that Gale thought it was love and didn’t know any better, that he’s been worshipping her since he was a child and she was at the very least aware of him since childhood), that when he was told to sacrifice himself by her to earn her form of forgiveness, he had a “choice”, as if it wasn’t completely set up against him by being a request from his GODDESS WHOM HE WORSHIPS, coming from his very close companion or even father figure, already being suicidal and believing that is the only method he can save the world, or that because since Mystra isn’t made out to be as bad as someone like Cazador or Shar she can’t be bad (which ignores all in game dialogue of our companions rejecting and hating Mystra for her choices against Gale, and once more Gale was done a bit dirty) so this evil ending will just solidify for a lot of people that Gale somehow is the one who just doesn’t fit into the massive abused people narrative. They can have their own interpretations, that’s fine, I just think that comes with ignoring a lot of in-game content that directly counters their arguments. Mystra wasn’t even good to Elminster (who she met as a child as well) or other mortals…
Firstly, I hear ya, but I don't think Larian treats Gale all that dirty. I think Act III is bloated with non character enhancing quests and he gets a little bit yucked by that (but he's still ahead of Karlach and Wyll in that respect because thank God both Gale and Tim Downie are Certified Yappers). Would've loved some way for Gale to run into other Chosens of Mystra, discarded or otherwise, and I think that the Book of Karsus being locked down where we deal with Rolan and Lorroakan points to SOMEONE at Larian wanting to drive that point home. It's Larian who has EVERY companion- even Wyll & Karlach who are our most morally and emotionally stable, even Lae'zel & Shadowheart who are our most sadomasochistic devouts- point out that Mystra and Elminster are bitches. Larian is just a little clumsy at how it handles endings that can't be an ending because trauma doesn't really have a smooth end. Only Shadowheart gets the needed wind down period (& I guess Astarion if you romance him but I actually hate that that's tied to romance for him but what am I gonna do, try to have a dialogue with vocal pool of Astarion romancers who just want to water him down to Customize An Abusive Boyfriend? No, I am not).
Secondly, if I worried myself about what Someone Has To Defend A Literal God Against The Horror Of Her Discarded Chosen Who Was Groomed Academically and Spiritually From Childhood Finding An Ounce of Self Esteem and Non Conditional Fellowship illiterates thought/did, I would get nothing else done and frankly I would've turned to a life of crime over it by now. There have been edgy, insipid, contrarian, hateful lil snot rags on this earth for thousands of years. They can put Taylor Swift lyrics over as many sex pests as they want. They can continue to think that the Gone Girl Cool Girl Monologue™️ (the movie, they can't read) is the same thing as reading Audre Lorde. It simply means nothing to me if gender essentialist pop feminists grapple with greater themes and contradictions because I don't concern myself with what that kind of ignorant person does. They ultimately have no reach outside of their circlejerks and as someone who HAS survived complex grooming, abuse, and the resulting shaming, their victim blaming is very Silly Asshole 101 to me. It's almost adorable. It's solidified for my dog-niece that the front yard will kill her & nothing bad can happen in backyard but that ain't because it's true, it's cause she's a little dumb, bless her heart, you feel me?
That being said, my pinned post has plenty breaking down the power dynamics and clear parallels to real world academic/religious abuse & DV between Gale and Mystra if you'd like to break it open for a good egg who has just never unpacked abuse before! I just don't think people who support women wrongs a la Mystra when Shadowheart and Lae'zel are RIGHT THERE BEGGING YOU TO are worth anyone's effort.
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sophsun1 · 5 months ago
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Queer as Folk – 2.15: Rage Against This Machine
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vigilskeep · 1 year ago
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imagine being morena dekarios and tara with this run’s morghaine. you’re worried about your boy after his terrible relationship and terrible breakup with the goddess of magic and he shows back up a year or two later with a ranger who hunts mages. talk about overcorrection
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dreadfulsanity · 1 year ago
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I may have just accidentally founded the Gale Dekarios Defence Army.
Who wants to join?
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minty-bunni · 7 months ago
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emmavakarian-theirin · 4 months ago
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you've heard of
"is that jesus"
"is that hozier"
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got asked today "is that gerard butler?"
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leohnoz · 5 months ago
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Random Dump 7
1-4: Random Art
5-8: Dragon story stuff
9-10 : Envy and Meep
11: Mushrooms Malice concept characters
12: Moth Flight
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angry-eevee · 1 year ago
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You can see how BG3 has infected our regular DND group because a plot point came up concerning Mystra and the whole table was like "Oh no not that biiiiiiitch"
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nojaloart · 1 year ago
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caved!! my sweet sweet durge paladin who accidentally broke his oath and killed gale within seconds of meeting him. oops 😬
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elizabethrobertajones · 1 year ago
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why is it that on my Dark Urge play I end up with my poor Durge lying dead on the floor outside sorcerous sundries while Minsc and Karlach are in the eeby deeby and Shadowheart with her negative charisma is being arrested for crimes Durge committed and is banned from the wizard shop forever, and all I wanted to do was sell some junk from our inventory
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atelierlili · 6 months ago
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People trying to white wash G!le questionable morals by saying he's an oppressed and a liberating rebel boy uwu are missing the sauce idgaf.
Mockingjay clearly shows that by the end of the book, it doesn't matter who fighting on the right side, if both are willing to to do the absolute worst and use human lives as tools to win the war, people will die, innocents will die and they will not die easy or clean deaths.
Like shouldn't it click that his mindset is wrong when he suggests the cave in the Nut and the most of the adults in the room are very uncomfortable with that and try to reason with him?
The implication of what Gale is suggesting settle quietly around the room. You can see the reaction playing out on people's faces. The expression range from pleasure to distress, from sorry to satisfaction. - Mockingjay Chapter 15 -
Like what he's suggesting has even Beetee, his future bomb collaborator, trying to humanize the miners of District 2 to him. Katniss even tries to reason that a cave in would be no different to how their own fathers died. And you want to know what he says about that?
"But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers," he retorts. "Is that everyone's problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on the fact that they're dying, instead of just being blown to bits?" - Mockingjay Chapter 15 -
He's been radicalize. He lacks empathy completely here. His fighting for a good cause, correct, but the way he goes about taking lives, seeing them as a just cause, is dangerous and disgusting, and is deserved of all the criticism he gets. It's what leads him to develop the bomb that is aimed to kill first responders. It was aimed to kill people like Prim. He may not have set those bombs off personally, but he designed that death trap and it did exactly what he wanted it to do. He is as culpable for it as Beetee and Coin are.
Another large theme of the book is staying true to oneself and ones' moral even in the face of immorality. And that's also calling out the worngdoings of your allies to the best of your abilities. To give mercy to those who are in unwinnable situation and direct your attention to the real perpetrators/offender and seek true justice.
G!ale can be a sympathetic character, because he is, but that doesn't absolve him from his actions in the books. Don't let his sympathetic backstory blind you to the fact that he's been wanting to commit atrocities in the books.
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sophsun1 · 5 months ago
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Queer As Folk – 2.08: Love for Sale
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catinfroghat · 1 year ago
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Problematic faves:
- Shiv Roy
- Wilson Wilson Utopia
- Mr Ripley (Talented)
- Anthy Himemiya
- Gale Breaking Bad (Libertarian :/)
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lacanneetlepee · 1 year ago
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dreamingofthewild · 6 months ago
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*sigh* are people really still out there saying Gale wasn't abused or groomed? We all know that if Gale and Wyll were women and Mizora and Mystra men, there would be no issue.
If anyone is interested in learning more, here are some meta posts about Gale's relationship with Mystra and how Mystra has a pattern of seducing her chosen so they're more compliant. And that Elminster is just another one of her puppets.
So one thing I notice on Twitter is how some people act about the bg3 characters whose abuses were perpetuated by women.
Gale specifically for this reason (but I will touch on others)bbecause I see him dismissed super often as "can't get over his ex".
I don't have the screenshots rn but once I grab them, I'll edit them in or reblog with the pics labeled.
But Gale's case obviously be has the line of Mystra being like "she was my muse, my teacher, and then my lover" and sure to some that's a red flag in itself (when it comes to adults I don't really give a fuck about teacher/student) but if you view it from not only Gale's own words "ive been connected with the weave for as long as i can remember"
And that doesn't distract from his genuine love of magic of course. And it also doesn't mean that he's actually been in connection with mystra for an amount of time.
However, if you ascend Gale, and he becomes a god, you get a bunch of new little things. Tara reminiscing of course, but you get a letter from Elminster, detailing that Mystra had Elminster scope out Gale when he was eight!
And sure is that pretty cool that he's a prodigy that got the attention of the goddess of magic at that age? Yes. Mystra is, however, known in forgotten Realms lore to seek young young boys who are in tune with magic to make into her chosen. And from context clues, her chosen can be anything from Elminster and Volo, dedicated wizards who try to keep things in check, etc etc. or they're somewhat of playthings to her.
Gale always seems so proud that he got to bed a goddess, and on the surface, hell yeah, that's cool.
Gale continued to have her attention even as he went to Blackstaff Academy, and Mystra eventually did take him on as an apprentice directly to her, later making him her chosen, and sleeping with him.
The reason it bothers me that people dismiss all of Gale's stuff to just "he can't get over his ex" is because that's is like almost textbook grooming? She was in his life from a young age, shaping and moulding him up as he grew up to be her perfect chosen, rewarding him by sleeping with him, and so on. And then of course casting him away when he has his folly with the netherese orb (and to be fair, it very well could have looked like to her that he was trying to seize the power himself and yes the orb does siphon off weave. That is a problem for the mistress of the weave yes).
But she also tells gale to KILL HIMSELF for her forgiveness.
Gale is much more than "unable to be over his ex" this woman was in his life since he was a kid. She's almost all he has ever known. If course it's going to be difficult for him to 1. Say no to her. 2. Get over the fact that he's lost someone that he spent his literal entire life dedicated to. Honestly if asked, I don't even think Gale would acknowledge or really see that what he went through was, in fact, abuse until it was spelled out in front of him. (Which does happen somewhat with the player character pleading to him that killing himself for mystra's forgiveness is actually horrific and that he should in fact be angry for how he was treated)
Similarly, and this one has been discussed a lot, Wyll and Mizora. Wyll was 17 and actively trying to help his people. 17, in a vulnerable state, willing to do anything to help and prove himself. Mizora very clearly took advantage of him, and regards him as a "pet", refers to him being "leashed", and so on. Personally, I do dislike the sexualization of their relationship, because it very much is also grooming (although a different type. Rather than manipulating and shaping his life from the ground up, she takes advantage of a vulnerable and desperate state to manipulate and contract Wyll into doing her bidding. I won't go too deep I to this one because it has been discussed to hell and back. But I did wanna touch on Wyll's situation as well.
Also, Halsin as well, though that has also been discussed in many retrospectives by a very good friend of mine. (If I get permission to, I'll link the retrospectives here.) Halsin's trauma often get dismissed due to his polyamory, open sexual nature, and his own somewhat diminishing/dismissal of it, which honestly I love the representation of, cause for a while I did that with my own trauma. Halsin was a sex slave to a house of Lolth-Sworn drow, a matriarchal society, where the men are generally used as fodder or for breeding, though male Lolth-Sworn drow can be wizards and rise in the ranks if wizardry, but are limited everywhere else. (Minthara mentions that the third male, and every subsequent male child after third are killed for being"useless"). Halsin often referred to them as "hosts" rather than being captors, (though he does touch on that if the Player Character threatens to sell him back into slavery). Again, everything I'd have to say here for Halsin has entirely been discussed top to bottom by a friend, so I'll have to ask them if I can link to their posts.
Anyway, long story short, I dislike it a lot when Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas and abuses get diminished, even if/when the character themself doesn't see or acknowledge the abuse in the same lens that we, the players, do.
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tenojan-in-tevinter · 1 year ago
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Viktor just read a book that said you should be totally obedient to your elders and he immediately threw it in a river. I'm so proud of him
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