I'm curious to hear your opinion. Do you think Gabriel was killed to make Darien available for romance? Otherwise, he would have chosen Gabriel over Vestige, right? If so, that's too cruel..
I don't necessarily think she was honestly. Zos hasn't killed a major NPC in a long time, since Elsweyr (set aside whatever theories you may have about his fate, it's functionally a death) so it was unexpected to see them have the balls to pull that. It made for a very impactful story to have Gabrielle, someone we know and care about and who is powerful in her own right, be a victim of the Worm Cult in a way that truly had consequences. It's hard to impart the real threat of the Planemeld without the consequences getting personal. Who cares about nameless NPC or person you just met dying? But it's also impactful to take have her control of how she dies in a way that let her be the hero she always saw in Darien and Dynar, two people who lost their lives to save everyone else.
I think Gabrielle was always going to be tied up in Darien's return. I certainly imagined plenty of scenarios where a storyline would end with Gabrielle sacrificing herself for Darien out of her obsession and guilt over his death. She was always tied to him since Coldharbour. I don't really think Darien romance was the main goal with the writing decisions in SOTWC, but I do think Gabrielle would always have to die for Darien to return.
As for if he would have chosen Gabi over the Vestige? No, I've said that before. From Words of the Fallen emphasising the Vestige over Gabi and Skordo, to the mutual experiences of both Darien and the Vestige being bound to their fates as the Vestige and the Vessel, playthings of the Princes, I think there's so much more that the player has with Darien than he ever had with Gabi. He's torn up by guilt and questions of what could have been, but it's not exactly what I'd call love, even from his actions in Xul-Haj.
From a writing standpoint, I think it'd have been poor writing to allow her to return and still have him pick the Vestige, but if she'd never have died, then I just think her crush would never have come up in part one. It's just not an issue that would ever have existed.
Ultimately I can't stop people from seeing this as "woman dies so man can have his moment and player can fuck him" but I do think it's worth looking at Gabrielle's character over the last few years and see the foreshadowing written on the wall.
