A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow.
i can't believe that one of gale's new idle animations in the epilogue is just dropping everything, making a beeline from his cozy corner with tara to the banquet, where he just starts munching on a plain mushroom
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.
i also flycam'd a bit more and noticed something in that epilogue scene the player gets with gale if he is romanced, where he proposes to the player and they can either accept, decline, agree to accompany him to waterdeep, or continue to travel.
it's still dark out if you flycam to the window, so either it's very late evening or very early morning.
the set-up is extremely cozy with a big bed, bottles of wine on a rack in back of the room, a small desk, books, letters, chairs and a fireplace:
what really stood out to me, however, is something you can see a bit more in the last screenshot.
there are two backpacks set up, one leaning against the other:
whereever the road takes them, whatever choice is made, it's something that gale and the protag will face together.
there are some small details i thought were very sweet about gale's good ending in the epilogue:
the description of the outfit the protag wears by default
brocade ensemble
the rich details on this ornate garb suggest the work of the finest craftspeople waterdeep's fashion district has to offer.
combined with gale's own new outfit and him fussing over it (although some of it is anxiety over the reunion with the others), i think it's very sweet to imagine gale having this garb made / tailored for his spouse.
gale smiles into his kisses with the protag
nothing really to add here, except that it's such an adorable detail:
gale still holds them as he tells them i love you + tells them to mingle
you don't really see it in the cutscene because the camera is focused on gale's face as he tells the protag he loves them, but with the flycam you can see it very well:
only after that does he slowly let go.
something something sometimes the little things are worth more than kingdoms indeed.
i saw a post that was like gale gatekeeps his own romance if you fail any of the skill checks during the weave scene, but he actually has a really sweet follow-up dialogue if you do fail and the weave scene ends without getting to imagine that kiss/romantic walk: