#gale orb

[ahahnopenope]

here's the picture i couldn't get out of my head

[liorlen]

gale origin playthru from astarion’s pov or smth like that

[theoldkyokodied]

If you follow my main you had to know this was coming… anyway. Enjoy these bloodweave doodles :)

[the-song-of-avernus]

Orin impersonating Gale = funniest scene in the game

If Gale's the one she replaces, you can suss out that 'Gale' has clearly gone mental and basically play chicken to get him to set off the orb.

At which point ‘Gale’ shapeshifts back to Orin and stands there sparkling after her FIREWORKS SHOW simultaneously waiting to bask in the applause while also going "what the FUCK dude" to Tav.

It is hysterical because Orin went to the trouble of a whole ass entire fireworks show to sell her "detonating the Orb" and then she just stands there waiting to be recognized for her art while also being mildly aghast/impressed at how cavalier Tav was with the lives of half of the Sword Coast. 11/10

[denkicide]

i hate them (they mean everything to me)

[violadesdragons]

Give me your hand

[armsofhadar]

weird lighting glitch that turns Gale's hair (more) gray???? please sir i'm already hanging on by a thread you can't do this to me

[dekariosclan]

Me: OK, at this point, I must have seen every single Gale interaction in the entire game. Surely there cannot be anything else that would make me love him even more.

Gale:

Me: WELP. 😍

[saturdaysky]

gale gazing upon his one true love (giant chess board)

-

based on a post that screenshotted his very sweet excited chess face. what a nerd 🥺

[pondering-gales-left-orb]

EVERYONE IS ON 3 HEALTH IM DYING TO KEEP HOPE ALIVE NO SPELL SLOTS LEFT ASTARION DROPPED HIS DAGGERS ITS NOT LOOKING GOOD IM SCREAMING UR SCREAMING

BUT WHATS THIS? ITS GALE COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR ( disintegrate ) AND

i dont think Raphael is coming back from this guys

gale the living legend truly living up to all of his claims of being amazing and powerful archmage by pulverizing the mf devil in one shot

[yabishrihere]

Gale

[messiahzzz]

i have been thinking a lot about mystra’s relationship with gale, how reducing her to “his ex” really is an understatement. she was and still is so much more than that. moreover, using the term “ex-girlfriend” in relation to her plainly feels wrong and diminishes the influence she has over him, as well as the role she played in his life since his childhood (and it also trivializes the abuse he suffered through her).

there are several instances where gale gets defensive when his companions mention or ask him abt mystra. he claims that their relationship was no less real even though most of their interactions were incorporeal.

we have already established that gale is an unreliable narrator in this particular case, still not having fully come to terms with the fact that he was groomed, manipulated and abused. he ping-pongs between bouts of realization (even in his romance), gaining clarity that he was merely used and eventually discarded and that mystra never truly cared for him, back to making light of his situation, idealizing her once again. realizing the extent of his trauma, that he is indeed a victim in this scenario, unlearning what he has been made to believe from a young age is a slow and painful journey. he is in the process of healing, but it takes time. time he deserves just like anyone else.

which makes me wonder what their relationship really looked like, once the lines between teacher, muse, and lover began to blur. i also feel like one of the reasons why part of the fandom still struggles to identify mystra as his abuser, is because she is a white woman who initially presents herself in a soft-spoken, benevolent manner… and well, the fact that gale himself is ambitious to a fault and a lil insane about the promise of power. he also briefly mentions "crossing mystra’s boundaries” when he confides in tav and tells them about his folly. (“i am, after all, the villain in this story.”) which led to a looooot of misinterpretations.

leaving the overall lore and mystra’s treatment of her other chosen aside — what we can discern from her interactions with gale in-game, is that mystra is civil as long as she remains in control and gale follows her demands, but as soon as there’s even a slight mention of challenging her power or defying her rule, she rather quickly changes her tone.

there is also one particular exchange between them that just won’t leave my head:

“you were many things to me, but never a threat. and never a savior."

even if we choose to blatantly ignore the fact that mystra is a deity, his goddess - there is no possible way that their relationship ever could have been equal by any mortal standards. the power imbalance that comes with her being his teacher and a symbol of his admiration, plus the sheer control she holds over him and his powers are simply too great. don’t even let me get started on how it is a common tactic of abusers to isolate their victims from any outside influences so they can exert full control over them. and how up to meeting tav and their merry band of misfits, every single soul he was close to was inevitably tied to mystra in one way or another. he briefly mentions his colleagues and then there’s elminster, also mystra’s chosen and former lover, and tara, who is a fine wizard in her own right. he spend so many years in service of her, dedicating his life to her, that now there is no one left he can truly call a friend. most of his little anecdotes and stories he tells are restricted to his childhood and university days, everything else was mystra.

evidently, ordering gale to detonate the orb is the most efficient course of action in her eyes. he is just as expendable as any other mortal, after all. maybe once significantly more useful given his status and the extent of his powers, but she doesn’t feel sorrow nor remorse for ordering him to end his life. his death is simply the most convenient means to an end.

another thing i would also like to briefly touch upon is the trigger/detonator itself. a dagger to the heart. it could have been literally anything else, a simple incantation. it is well within mystra’s power to stabilize the orb and also to remove it from his body entirely. but no, what she requires of gale is to stab himself. one might argue that it was simply a cinematic choice meant for a more dramatic effect, but it really leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. especially considering the fact that she is commonly known and referred to as a jealous goddess. it almost makes it seem like yet another form of punishment or mere pettiness. after his long period of isolation, gale is now surrounded by fellow humans. people he cares about, even perhaps people he might eventually consider good friends — which is enough of a reason for him to not want to die, to keep going and try to find another way, rather than to blindly follow mystra’s bidding. now there’s a group of people who support him and are genuinely invested in him staying alive. hmmm...

[galedekarios]

gale's reaction to the protag offering to sacrifice themselves by becoming a mindflayer

i wanted to share this scene because it's something that not everyone may have seen and because it's a truly wonderfully acted, animated and written scene, showing gale's empathy and selflessness. despite being scared, despite wanting to live, he makes the offer to reconsider using the orb so the protag needn't sacrifice their own life and soul.

you can get the scene by having the protag ask the emperor if by becoming an illithid, they would be able to control the netherstones and absorb orpheus's power.

gale will interrupt the conversation with:

Gale: This is not the kind of decision to make based solely on your own wisdom. We must discuss it - privately.

he will then have an exclamation mark over his head to initiate the full conversation.

here is the transcript as well:

[tomurakii]

I like bloodweave. Okay. But I DON'T like the version of them in fanfic where Astarion is a dick and Gale is like. Whining and pleading for him to be emotionally vulnerable (or just. Nice to him) prior to the relationship being established. Because that is just not accurate. Gale needs the player to express interest in him during his weave-teaching scene before he even considers hitting on them properly. Gale is entirely resigned to his fate and needs someone else to pull him away from it. Gale only starts being sweet and romantic and devoted after you accept his love confession and give him hope for the future. Gale says fuck all and then slinks away to cry privately if you break up with him.

Like he isn't chasing after people lmao. He isn't dropping to his knees and crying about anything much less this dickhead he met a week ago. He is overwhelmingly passive about literally everything personal to him up to and including his own death (provided there are no casualties/there is a good reason) until after the player expresses that they care about him. Astarion is not doing that in any of these fics.

Like Gale is friendly and a dork and doesn't wanna get murdered but he fully has a suicide plan. He thought the artefacts would help him survive but he didn't believe he'd ever truly live again. If Gale confessed and Astarion said/did like one (1) mean thing afterward Gale's romance is closed off forever. He's wandering into the forest to cry. He's killing himself immediately. His fragile ego and self worth can't take it. You have to understand that when we joke about him being pathetic it's not bc he's like. Sopping wet and chasing people down and begging for a scrap of attention. It's because he craves affection but would literally rather die than ask or even hope for it until someone else forces that hope back into his serotonin-deficient tadpole brain.

[klkirbles]

professor dekarios of blackstaff academy

[kettls]

I channelled my Guild Artisan Tav and visited a pottery painting evening with the work girls and... panicked.

Everyone else was painting geese and pumpkins on plates and autumn aesthetic stuff and I was sitting giggling maniacally away to myself that I was painting the tattoo of a nuclear bomb I like to smooch.

Edit: Now... what exactly should I keep in it?

Though saying that, I DID choose a vase initially because canonically you never find anything in the damn things in the game.