43 replies to this topic

[Qun00]

Of course, it was kinda shitty to hide their father's will like that but I can understand why Gamlen feels the way he does.

It doesn't seem particularly thrilling to be bound by duty to someone who hasn't bothered showing up in 25 years.

[Endee]

I'll admit, I really disliked him when I first played, but after finishing the game a few times and trying to see where he comes from... I just can't bring myself to hate him. I can see his point. Leandra did run away to leave everything behind, including her brother and her parents who adored her more than they did him... leaving Gamlen to clean up the mess.

 

I think it's understandable why he's so bitter when we meet him. Leandra had it all and she threw it away. At least Gamlen still tried to make something of the family fortune, even though it completely backfired (qunari cheeses, Gamlen? Really?). He'd not a bad guy, he's just... a man without luck, I suppose.

[AntiChri5]

Gamlens an ass.

 

Taking the estate because Leandra fucked off is one thing. Lying to her about it completely another. Then he sells her children into indentured servitude to pay off his debts. A year later, he starts to grumble about her not paying rent. Bitchface, you pissed away her fortune. I mean yeah she should really get a job but still.

 

He has enough tender moments and valid points that he is recognisable as a person under all the ass, but he is still an ass.

[sniper_arrow]

After reading his WOT2 entry, I felt (almost) sorry for him. To be considered as second best by your own parents is hard enough.

[sniper_arrow]

After reading his WOT2 entry, I felt (almost) sorry for him. To be considered as second best by your own parents is hard enough.

[vertigomez]

I like him for what he is. He's as real a person as one can be in a fictional setting. A total dick in regards to women (and your LI, regardless of gender), but his feelings about Leandra and their parents are very understandable and he does love Hawke, at the end of the day.

[Darkly Tranquil]

A sad, flawed man who lived his entire life in the shadow of other and was never able to achieve anything.

[robertmarilyn]

I feel sorry for him mostly because he probably could have done better with his life if he didn't feel so sorry for himself. Just now, as I'm thinking about him, I can see that Carver took after his uncle with the "feeling sorry for himself" bit. Yes, both of them were overshadowed by their siblings but I do feel like Carver grew once he became a Grey Warden. I do think that Gamlen comes to really care about his family, although, by then he's lost some of them forever. Gamlen mostly makes me feel sad. 

[Miss Golightly]

I originally thought he was a f***ing scumbag and that he was that one loser relative we all have in our families (always envisioned my Hawke rolling her eyes at him), and then later on I genuinely began to feel sorry for him. When everybody was taken away from Hawke, and Gamlen was the only family she had left, I kind of changed my opinion on him and tried to understand. 

 

He's one of those people who have just never really been able to get anything going for themselves. He's actually a rather "realistic" character, because there are so many people out there exactly like him.

[springacres]

Even on my first playthrough, I couldn't bring myself to hate him.  He may be bitter, but he got the short end of the stick and it's hard to blame him for taking advantage of Leandra's absence.  And ultimately, he does love Hawke in his own way.

[themikefest]

He wasn't too bad, but when he made that comment about my Hawke and Isabela in a relationship, I wanted to hit him

 

Spoiler

[vertigomez]

He wasn't too bad, but when he made that comment about my Hawke and Isabela in a relationship, I wanted to hit him
 

Spoiler

Ughh, yeah, his LI comments are the worst. If you're playing male Hawke, I'm pretty sure he calls her... several derogatory names and gets pissy 'cause she wouldn't sleep with him. And ofc he's super gross about femHawke and Isabela.

Here are his thoughts on male Hawke and Fenris:

Spoiler

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a bath.

[Dabrikishaw]

Cannot bring myself to care about him.

[caradoc2000]

Then he sells her children into indentured servitude to pay off his debts.

The year's service was so that they could get into Kirkwall.
 

To be considered as second best by your own parents is hard enough.

 An optimist would say he is still among the top two children.

[Obadiah]

Gamlen is the gift that keeps on giving me crap

Family, what a kick in the quads.

[AntiChri5]

The year's service was so that they could get into Kirkwall.

And also to pay his debts.

[Ghost Gal]

I don't think he's that bad. Granted, I haven't played the game so much as looked at detailed walkthroughs on Youtube, but I got the impression that the game wanted us to hate him more than they gave us reasons to hate him.

 

Apparently, we're supposed to hate him for "stealing" Leandra's inheritance, yet she chose to give it up years ago and never came back until she wanted something. (Gotta love people who don't give but expect to get.) Apparently we're supposed to hate him for "selling the Hawke children into indentured servitude," yet they asked him to get them into the city and it was the only way they could get into the city. Apparently we're supposed to hate him for asking Leandra to pay rent, but she had been sitting around doing nothing in his house for a year, so by that point I thought it was totally fair to ask her to either start pitching in or move out.

 

Granted, it was wrong of Gamlen to take his sister's inheritance and fritter it away, but I felt that he made a good point that she chose to give it up when she left and didn't help him take care of their parents or run the estate in the two and a half decades since she ran off, so how much did she really deserve it?

 

In fact, I personally think Leandra and the Hawke siblings come across as rather self-entitled and ungrateful (in that they seem to feel Gamlen owes them that lifestyle and passage into the city and free room and board, and they shouldn't have to say "thank you" or do anything in return), so that really decreases my outrage over his supposed theft.

[Lythinae]

The year's service was so that they could get into Kirkwall.

 

Gamlen owed Meeran for cheating in a whallop game, and Athenril for 'the last big idea'.  If Hawke works out, they'll consider it even, so covering his debt is definitely part of it (and apparently, apostates don't come cheap)

[dgcatanisiri]

As Carver puts it, Gamlen can go suck an egg.

 

Much as I sympathize for what he goes through, he lost all my willingness to forgive with his comments after the will was found - "At least I got the money." I wanted to twist him into a pretzel after that. Yeah, sure, you got the money. And you pissed it all away, proving that your parents were right to want Leandra controlling how much money you got.

[Youknow]

He's a bit of a loser, but it's clear he means well overall. He's just so crass about everything that he's more annoying than a lot of things. 

[SwobyJ]

Highly disliked him, throughout the game. Periods of coming close to hating him, and coming close to liking him, but never actually there. I just 'dealt with him'.

[KaiserShep]

An annoying ass and a loser, but at least he was useful when it counted. 

[DebatableBubble]

I always felt sorry for him. Wish having him move into the estate was an option. His comments on the LIs are inappropriate, though. 

[Nikkolas]

I ended up feeling sorry for him and I'm glad that  he has his long lost daughter. I felt so bad when I first beat the game without realizing it.Leandra dead, the city in chaos, you leaving - he had nothing and no one. At least now I know he has someone who cares for him and he loves in return.

 

P.S.

 What kind of monster would make it so they don't meet? I played an evil run and I still couldn't do it.

[GoldenGail3]

I thought Gamlen was... Okay. And I was playing a guy Hawke. And an Isabela romance too.