So, to experiment, I did the sacrifice ending for my origin!Gale run, and I never saw the scene explored or, well, even posted before. It offered quite a few things to think about, namely Gale's place in the afterlife and what path should lay before him.
I have so many thoughts surrounding this. Canonically, by being shown love, being shown that people care for him, that this friends hold him in high esteem simply for being the man he is, Gale would never sacrifice himself simply for Mystra's forgiveness. In fact, as I mentioned earlier on this blog and as reflected through my canon interpretation, Gale comes to battle this war within himself, for SELF forgiveness, for redemption, for understanding his value as a person, and makes it out all the better. He DOES not choose the sacrifice ending. He chooses to fight and live.
But in this angle, I like to believe, perhaps at first he might have considered sacrifice for Mystra, but in time, he realized very much what she asked of him was simply too much, too unfair, too cruel. Moreover, that choice of self-sacrifice was made as Gale thought it most logical. He looked upon the Netherbrain, saw his friends so weary, the city and the world so under duress, so battered, and thought, what is my life in exchange for everyone else's? Gale battles a lot with self worth issues, and he hides this behind a wall where he rationalizes his death in the context of sparing the heartache of those he cares for most.
This line is an interesting line. Mystra having already plucked Gale's thread from the tapestry of fate... as in, remove his essence altogether? I recall a line where Gale, if romanced and sacrificed, would say something along the lines of lingering there, there in the Weave to watch over them until the last sundering of the stars--or something to that effect. This line from Withers could be literal in that Mystra's ultimatum ultimately led to Gale removing himself from the physical world, but I can't help but to wonder if she, too, would have 'plucked his thread' from the Weave itself as well, ergo erasing the very last parts of him. Mystra doesn't strike me as particularly malicious. Absolutely cold, absolutely toxic, and absolutely callous, yes, but after promising him redemption, to but erase the lest vestiges of his Weave would seem quite the insult to injury. So, I don't believe that's the implication, BUT. It is a thought.
Another interesting line. Gale's life in his death has only just begun. I haven't yet looked into much of the afterlife in Forgotten Realms lore, but this could be something to look into. What could Gale achieve in death?
If anyone could achieve anything, even here, I wager it'd be Gale.
But what could the implication be? While Withers says this, however... the pain on Gale's face. The way he lost everything. Be that as it may, this potential for a different role or not, the idea that death is not the end is one he finds extraordinarily difficult to accept quite yet. Regardless, Gale remains very much like ambition itself, still a man with drive, dreams, desires, even there as he wades in the cold chasm of the afterlife. If there is something to be done, to achieve, to twist and make malleable in his hands, he will find a way. He cares so much for his friends, those he has left behind, those he couldn't properly say goodbye to--Gale, even here, would not content himself to simply lay and have his memory waste to the passing of the seasons. He will ease their path. He will do as best he can to protect them even with this infinite veil between them. He will long to touch them, hear them, laugh with then, but he will have to make peace that that is simply not his domain anymore. Perhaps, if yet intermingled with the Weave, he can feel the pulls of those spellcasters in the party, feel them like song, even all the way beyond. Or, perhaps, as my head likes to twist around, he does dabble more seriously in those pulls of necromancy, some sort of vessel of death, though perhaps a white one, not bitter, not angry, simply the cold touch of it, present and constant and there to lend aid when possible.
Gosh, Gale........... This was painful.
