games

I've never played the game and don't know who this is, but assume it is because they are all envious of his magnificent head of hair.

I’m around the same point in BG3 right now and was feeling the exact same way about Gale and most of the companions. Most of them are awful and I don’t understand the hate Gale gets!

We have fascist frog, christofascist, fascist with goblin characteristics, and the creep who assaults you in your sleep, and the most hated one is the guy that thinks you’re pretty cool?

I still haven’t met Halsin, Jaheira, or Minsc but so far my list of “not-shitty-companions” is Karlach, Wyll, Gale, [Large gap], Astarion, Shadowheart, Minthara, Laezel.

If Lae’zel has haters I’m among them, if she has one hater it’s me, if she has no haters I’m dead.

If you don’t get why people find Gale annoying you might be the Gale of your group

I've only played about 8 hours of bg3 because my laptop sucks, but I completely missed Gale lol. I failed the check to pull him out of the portal and now he's just... Gone. Idk where the fuck he is.

It's fine with me though, I have Shadowheart and Astarion and I'm basic and attracted to them

So... spoiler-free answer...

I'm a big fan of the setting.

I was, at first, super into Gale! I was playing a rogue elf so he didn't seem condescending. We were getting along fine. Then he told me about his past.

I went from Gale fan to hell fuckin no so goddamned fast! It was infuriating because none of my friends had any experience with the setting, so it took them longer to see the... toxic mentality that put him in the position he's in. I almost threw my controller! So glad we hadn't been screwing at that point or I would have wanted to kill him! I remember launching into a rant where I said that Gale was either the most arrogant fucking man alive, or he was by far and away the dumbest, and trying to explain just what it would mean if he could do what he was trying to do...

I'm still mad about it! You did what? What a fucking asshole! And to pretend that any of that was for anything beyond greed, beyond sheer arrogance! He had everything but it wasn't enough! Godforfuckingbid this man just accept his place!

Massive green flag from the fiance though. He was playing it behind me, and without any knowledge of the universe, he got to the same scene and said he also hated Gale was too greedy to be happy.

...is the spoiler-free version of that. (That situation) wasn't good enough? He had to risk the (positive situation) for something so childish and selfish?

Correct answer. Good litmus test.

I had him in my party the first go 'round before they patched him to be less pushy about entering a relationship. But even now he's a bit of a twat especially if you play either a wizard or a sorcerer where he's frequently talking down to you despite not actually being any better at the whole magic thing. There's one conversation in act 2 earns him a permanent place on the bench in my opinion. And the only reason he gets that is because:

no spoilers

Aside from the romance issue, the problem is that Gale is a whiny douchebag who basically trips his way into higher power, ascribing many of your achievements to himself (even if you do not bring him along on quests) and thus thinking himself worthy of praise and other things that I will not reveal because of spoilers.

My friends and I were pissed that even after we made the choice to deny him one of these 'really bad ideas' he has, we were forced to see him achieve it in the post-game, and then were not allowed to kill him for doing something explicitly against our wishes, which we were entitled to make since we were the ones who actually saved the city, which he then seemingly forgot that we were opposed to because the BG3 writers aren't always to maintain coherent character emotional arcs and memory after Act 1 ( omg I love Act 1 though, so good), which can lead to some very funny story moments.

Perhaps he is better if you take him along (though he was already an annoying wizard to begin with) but if you are playing multiplayer and simply wish to save him by not dismissing him from your party, the story devs will still try to force him and his frankly absurd OC level goals down your throat because he is clearly one of their favorites.

Edit: That said, I am honestly not a huge fan of any of the NPCs especially compared to the interesting people you met in Divinity 2, which is the superior Larian game imo because it isn't tied to the exploitation strategies that plague D&D 5E as a system, so much so that bosses have to randomly lose status effects to maintain any level of difficulty.

That isn't to say BG3 is bad, just that, having played hundreds of hours of both, D2 is the more compelling game, in large part due to its much more difficult, and intricate combat system, which allows you to actually use status effects on bosses though they were a pain to get to stick, and encouraged you to really combo powers, rather than just have a couple one-trick pony styles.

Anyways, my point is that most of the characters are pretty meh, but Gale is absolutely the most annoying if you play the game not really interacting with him.

Edit the 2nd: Basically none of the characters are that great unless you want to have sex with them. Karlach was my favorite though, story-wise, because at least she has a character reason to be a dumbass.

Stop licking the damn thing

considering the other party members consist of an angry green fascist, a goblin racist

named Tav

He's fine. People on the internet are addicted to rageahol.

His backstory does make him out to be kind of a jerk, but I don't think you learn the details until Act 2 or maybe 3.