#joep beving

Gaius, a mortal plucked up by a God via a Six Cylon. The Six Cylons were designed for love- in this case, while God's feelings towards Gaius seem ever changing, focused on his PURPOSE over his comfort or happiness or anything else (SOUND FAMILIAR), Caprica Six very genuinely loves Gaius & they get what I think is one of the most beautiful endings in the show (arguably happy, although I don't think "happy" was the goal of any of those endings). Gaius' Folly is instead of loving Caprica as equals he walks right into the hands of the Cylons by handing her his ego instead and giving her access to a defense mainframe for "journalism" (she ended the world, oops). Anyway, in Gaius' pieces, you always have mournful swells, ominous things above and below him, the conflict of a man chosen by God, tortured by God, loved by something and someone who borders the line between a demi god AND is the fruit of man's attempt to play God.

Bear McCreary on the earliest interations of Gaius Baltar's theme, starting properly in season 2 (blog post here):

Dark Unions is on my work-in-progress Gale Dekarios playlist and I didn't realize it until I sat down to try and pull pieces unique to Gale that it is almost, sonically and structurally, a dark echo of how Gale is introduced. If you listen to one into the other with no knowledge of the work they're from, it feels like they could be manifestations of the same piece.

When Gaius Baltar accidentally wields his relationship to God and stumbles into creating a cult (I mean, THE PARALLELS), his theme evolves to a kind of chant, The Cult of Baltar. Bear McCreary describes it as a drone, but the same whimsy and desperation remains. Here's what Bear McCreary has to say about the dichotomy of spiritual, cult leader, hand of God Gaius, sonically and thematically (McCreary's blog post here):

And here is the prayer, translated to Anglo-Saxon, that the cult says to Baltar, and some thoughts about the two sides of Gaius Baltar still warring with one another, showing up sometimes where the other should instead:

Are there any pieces of music in Baldur's Gate that define a Mystra theme more concretely? For those of you who have done multiple romances all the way through (I still haven't finished a play through, I'm TERRIBLE), is there anything unique to Gale that I should pick at more?

The Shape of Things to Come isn't technically a theme for Gaius or any one character, but it's so pivotal to how he transcends himself at the same time that he is forced to acknowledge his own frailty as compared to god(s). If you're unfamiliar with the show, the scene it first appears in is worth gazing at... (spoilers obv but trust me, you'll be confused & it will still be worth watching the show) it inhabits, along with Gaius, a kind of liminal space that Gale does in the story of Baldur's Gate I'd argue, and this sort of sweeping piece is the kind of piece Gale DESERVES in a world where this game gets to be even longer and about every origin character as individuals.