James Spader As Rick Westford In Jack’s Back

he’s just a lil guy

Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace: Serious padawan, in love with Jedi code, no other romance for him, super cautious

Obi-Wan in the rest of the prequels: Thirty and flirty, you only live once, gets shipped with everyone

i love Gale BG3 and i love how this turned out but i'm never drawing hair again.

a spiritual successor to “is there cannibalism in hannibal?”, my new favorite comment on does the dog die, found in the entry for Cronenberg’s Crash:

I've noticed a bit of a trend with some of my favs, and ex-favs, as of late 💀

Whether or not one is similar to Gary due to personality (Marshall), or looks more-so (Liam), I'm now able to articulate why I want nothing to do with Gary himself, despite those on-the-surface similarities.

Even though all three of them have their questionable sides, only one of them didn't protect MC from it, when it would've counted the most, and that was Gary Rennell.

Liam and Marshall? They shielded MC from themselves when their routes were at their worst, and that means a lot to me.

And then you have Gary, who reacted selfishly with the R!Hannah drama. I even made a 'lil zombie montage to further drive home why I feel so betrayed by Gaz in particular 💀

how it feels liking and reblogging posts

- Jamala Harris

With you, I forget my goddess

So, I have completed Bg3 twice now, but on both runs I’ve romanced Gale (truly shocking, I know) and therefore I had never seen Gale’s non-romance discussion with Tav about the Annals of Karsus.

I recently got to see it, and what surprised me the most is how extremely angry and bitter Gale is about Mystra’s treatment of him. Rightfully and understandably so, but it’s something we do not see or experience in the romance version.

This got me thinking about the difference in Gale’s reactions in the friendship vs romance scenes, why they are different, and also how this relates to the complaints I’ve read about Gale ‘still not being over Mystra even when romancing Tav’.

(Note that I’m mainly going to focus on the portions of each dialogue that relate to Mystra in particular, and I’m not referencing the ‘alternate’ boat scene w/Gale—where he tells you beforehand that he will return the crown to her—since he doesn’t mention Mystra at all there.)

Screencaps below are from @munmomuu’s wonderful video on YouTube. The screencaps take place after Gale has read the Karsus book. If you are romancing him, before you reach this point, the conversation ends because he tells you he wants to discuss it later “in private,” during the boat scene.

But in a friendship run, he will explain what he’s read to you and then begin to make his case for using the crown:

Gale: Some gods may delude themselves into believing they care about their worshippers, but when it comes down to it - we’re all expendable. Children to be appeased, not respected.

Gale: I worshipped Mystra loyally for years, and in that time she granted me the barest sliver of the power I was ready to wield.

Gale: Even with the fate of the world at stake, she had little more to offer me than the means of blowing myself up at a more convenient time. She’s done nothing to help us.

There then comes a dialogue branch where Tav can ask this:

And Gale replies, with understandable bitterness:

Gale: She sent me to die.

Look at how angry he is during this whole exchange, and how he focuses all that anger on the past, and what Mystra has done to him (or not done, as he points out she’s offered them no help at all.)

— — —

Now let’s compare this to his Mystra dialogue in the boat scene:

Gale: I’ve already defied Mystra. Had I followed her command, there’d be nothing left of me but a smoking crater.

Gale: The tadpoles, the orb - these threats to our existence - the gods could aid us if they wished, but instead they cower behind Ao. So let us act ourselves.

Gale: I used to believe Mystra’s forgiveness was worth dying for. But I was wrong. You showed me just how much I have to live for.

Notice how there’s no fiery anger at Mystra here, just Gale’s resigned belief that the Gods have failed them.

So what’s the key component that makes Gale react so differently in each scenario?

It is, of course, Tav.

More specifically, it’s Tav’s love for him, which has clearly helped his heart heal from the trauma that he’s experienced. Yes, Tav’s friendship is extremely important as well, and yes, Gale is still insecure even with Tav’s love (‘you would really prefer me as I am?’) but the extreme bitterness, the anger, all of that is gone. Here, Gale is no longer hung up on Mystra and the past; he’s looking to the future. Because now that he has Tav, what he desires most is to take his life and his fate back from the Gods and into his own hands—with Tav at his side.

The irony is that some people complain about Gale ‘not being over Mystra’ while he’s actively romancing Tav, but just look at the difference in the dialogue! Look at how focused he is on Mystra when he is not romancing Tav, and then how she becomes a mere afterthought once Tav has claimed his heart.

I really enjoyed seeing this level of detail. I think it perfectly illustrates Gale’s frame of mind in each scenario, as well as showing the positive impact Tav’s love has on Gale.

And last but not least—it confirms that Gale was not exaggerating when he says this:

Gale: With you, I forget my goddess. I love you.

— — —

Buy me a Ko-fi ☕💗

i see your kinky astarion and vanilla gale and i raise you vanilla astarion and kinky gale. these mfers be like

astarion: god please can i just have normal sex for once in my life, or even no sex, no sex is good too

gale: i just got so turned on watching you murder demons that i can't think straight, let's fuck in seven dimensions