#im not really one for tons of discourse but it's been churning in my head since i read that article

[neu-apostolisch]

i am definitely of the mind that the interview given by larian discussing the epilogues and character outcomes reflects a lot of bias and favoritism towards some arcs rather than others.

however, i think an overlooked part of this analysis is how they view some characters as independent characters with agency (let's say astarion, for example) and other characters as parts of the plot (i think gale and lae'zel fall into this quite strongly). Shadowheart is an interesting example of both--her narrative plays heavily into the plot of Act 2, but in Act 3 she moves into the more independent category.

this intertwining of character stories with the main story arc is i think what results in writer comments like "a good ending for gale is him blowing himself up." it's NOT a good ending for GALE the character, but with this detached (and dehumanizing) view of him, i see exactly why they would say something like that about the STORY. it's viewing him as a plot device, not a fully written person with ideas, goals and motives. it's a complete failure to understand characters because they're not conceptualizing of them that way.

another person mentioned that "it feels like the character who wrote gale put a lot of thought and care into him, and the other writers didn't really care." and i think that's spot on. it truly does feel like there's a strong disconnect between "gale the plot device" and "gale the beloved character" that you broadly don't see with characters who have more independent storylines. this is likely also why he gets noticeably inconsistent treatment in narrative quality throughout the game.