#I was reminded about the whole “Midnight becoming Mystra” thing while brushing back up on Mystra via the wiki

[haldenlith]

More random late night BG3 thoughts:

I'm not really "into" the Gale fandom as it is or anything, so I don't know if any other fellow weirdos have mused about this, but Gale's relationship with Mystra is interesting when you think about Mystra's own history.

See, I'm thinking that the Mystra he had a fling with wasn't the OG goddess Mystra, but "The-Wizard-Known-As-Midnight-Who-Became-Mystra".

This doesn't excuse the whole grooming thing, just to be clear, but it definitely adds an interesting dimension to it. Like, a random mortal, now finding themselves taking over the position of the goddess they previously worshiped, seeing a guy and getting maybe a little overly attached in the wrong way... kinda makes sense. People who find themselves suddenly in a position with a fucking lot of power, I feel like, tend to do really dumb and/or not-great things. And if I'm remembering lore trivia right, Midnight-Mystra was... not exactly good at the impartial-goddess thing. She was mortal originally, and hadn't really been a goddess for all that long at all. Hell, when she got with Gale, she would've JUST gotten resurrected after getting killed by Cyric. Homegirl probably wasn't in her right mind, being freshly resurrected after being mcfuckin murdered, and shouldn't have been in a position of power over a young, impressionable wizard.

What makes this interesting is there's suggestion in some shit I've read that OG Mystra groomed Midnight. So, in essence, Midnight was just perpetuating the cycle with Gale.

Given the ongoing theme of how one deals with "the cycle of abuse" and whatnot in the general character stories in BG3, I just thought that was interesting, and gave an interesting bit of depth to Gale's own issues. While it doesn't make the situation any better, it does add an interesting bit of depth when you think about "Mystra" not being this powerful goddess that's been around forever and ever and "is the Weave" like Gale waxes on about, but is in fact just some lady who took up the mantle in order to make sure shit didn't go haywire after the original Mystra died fighting Helm.

It certainly adds an amusing layer to Gale's ascension to godhood, if players choose that route.