Gale is a victim of grooming, no matter how you put it.
Immediately calling out the big guns here on proof that Mystra is, without a doubt, a predator:
1. Anyone who uses the Weave, Mystra is aware of them, how they used it, and who they are. That’s how she keeps anyone who uses The Weave in check.
2. Gale mentions being a child prodigy and catching the eye of Mystra at a young age, most likely at around 8.
(Elminster letter for reference: this can only be unlocked of Gale dies trying to achieve godhood.)
‘You could have been no more than eight summers' old, clutching your mother's apron, eyebrows singed off by the fireball you'd unleashed into your neighbour's rose bush. You were crying because the flowers were so beautiful, and you did not mean to destroy them.
How kind, how eager, how brilliant you were. And yet so naive. You could not yet see that power so carelessly begets destruction, but so too might your good nature be the guiding light by which your abilities might shape our world for the better.
Where is that child now, I wonder? Did he remain at Blackstaff, nose buried in his books? Does he live within his mother's ageing heart, weeping for those roses? Or is he within you still, lost amongst the trappings of godhood you so casually adorn yourself with?
Wherever he is, I hope he can forgive me. To him I promise - I will not make the same mistakes again.
3. Minscs dialogue after Gale is granted an audience with Mystra goes as follows:
Minsc: Gale reminds me of the vremyonni of my homeland. The man-mages of Rashemen.
Minsc: While the girl-folk go on to rule as wychlaran, Weave-touched boys were hidden away. Trained to work their craft in silence and secrecy.
Minsc: It is an old custom, not well-observed. In truth I thought it born of caution, after some catastrophe wrought by wizardly men-folk of old.
Minsc: Now I wonder if it was not done to hide them from Mystra, and the snares she sets for young and prideful boys, hm?
If that doesn’t not SCREAM ‘predator’, I don’t know what does. Even if Mystra only started to date Gale when he was 18 and had somehow had no prior relationship/knowing/WHATEVER with Gale: it’s still a relationship with some insanely unbalanced power dynamics.
Gale is a wizard. Wizards when doing any type of spell, have to beckon to Mystra to allow use of The Weave. And also the fact that, well, I don’t know- Mystra is a god. What more can I say? She made him feel special. He was one of the ‘lucky’ boys, being gifted and chosen by her. He was ‘lucky’ to be graced with the overwhelming force of celestial euphoria. He was ‘lucky’ to be a plaything.
UGHHH MY BABY BOY WHO I LOVE SO MUCH!! Mystra ain’t magic you don’t need her💔