Yes, Gamlen did send a letter to Leandra informing her of their parents' death. And that was the only letter he ever sent. He kept the inheritance secret. I checked WoT Vol. 2 to confirm this.
And so you're two thirds wrong- he did reach out to her, and he did inform her of the parents death. Keeping the inheritance a secret was never in doubt, but it also was never required for Leandra to come back.
That's some very questionable logic.
It's a foundation of behavioral psychology and game theory. People want returns on their investment, rather than lose it entirely. It's commonly called the sunk cost fallacy, and it's a major aspect of negotiations.
If you've ever heard the saying 'When you owe the bank a thousand dollars, they own you- when you owe the bank a million dollars, you own them,' this is what it touches back to. Getting something for debt you would otherwise never get, rather than nothing, is a very powerful negotiation tool. Without that leverage, Gamlen's just a poor guy asking for a big favor- and so is every other refugee on the docks. Hawke's only distinguishing trait at that point is helping kill some other refugees- hardly compelling cause.
If he had not squandered the family fortune, he wouldn't need to sell his relatives into indentured servitude.
And if Leandra hadn't run away, she wouldn't need to sell her children into indentured servitude either- because, let's be frank, if Gamlen is responsible since he benefits from the debts, then Leandra can be responsible as well since she benefits from getting into the safety and then being provided food and shelter. Otherwise, Gamlen's just the middle-man for Hawke's own choice.
But hey, why stop there? If Malcom Hawke had chosen another country to be an apostate in, or never chosen to be an apostate at all, the Hawkes wouldn't have fled the Blight. If the Architect hadn't unleashed the Blight, it wouldn't have happened in Ferelden. If Loghaine hadn't abandoned Cailen, we might not have fled at all. And if Corypheus and his band hadn't unleashed the Blight, there wouldn't have been this at all. If we're going to what people could have done before arriving at the city, there are a lot better and more pressing alternatives than Gamlen.
But Gamlen did squander the family fortune- after Leandra abandoned the family- long before she came back needing it. There was no reasonable expectation of needing it for her sake, and it's irrelevant to what Gamlen could have done as an alternative at the time of Hawke's arrival.
And even if he'd been dirt poor, he could get a loan from someone semi-reputable.
Why would a semi-reputable lender make massive loans to someone with no ability to pay it back for the express purpose of harboring an apostate? During the midst of a refugee crisis when plenty of other refugees with less risk are also desperate to get in?
Moreover, who is this semi-reputable lender? Not Varric, a person who only took note of Hawke and extended an offer because of Hawke's reputation from service or smuggling. The only other lenders we see are the Carta, who are anything but reputable. Black-market merchants, those who might take the apostate business, are notoriously predatory and high fees.
You've clearly got a narrative built up in your head wherein Gamlen is some kind of unsung hero or Leandra is an ungrateful ******, but it's in service of a creepy old bastard who betrayed his sister, sold his nephews and nieces into indentured servitude and drove away the only woman who ever loved him.
I don't think Gamlen's a hero. I've never denied he's creepy or old- I just don't think it matters. I also don't think Leandra was betrayed when she abandoned family first and far longer, haven't seen you or anyone else actually offer a better alternative for what he could have done to get the Hawkes in at the time of their arrival from the position he was in, and have precious little context to allocate blame for why an old flame from long ago left him.
Gamlen's pitiful and pathetic and has unsightly views. For some strange reason, I don't reserve a special contempt for the unfortunate, nor do I hold them morally responsible for circumstances beyond their control.
Gamlen's woes are not entirely his own fault, but he doesn't deserve the level of sympathy you seem eager to give him.
I don't advocate any sympathy I wouldn't give to any other unfavored child. I simply dismiss unfounded disdain.
Considering you blame Gamlen for the Hawke's circumstances despite all the other actors at play, and without actually providing a more moral alternative he could have done at the time of DA2, you seem eager to blame him regardless of his actual position. He's guilty of selling family into slavery if he helps them, and he'd be abandoning family to worse if he didn't. Unless there is a third option for him at the time- which you continually fail to provide- that's a no-win situation.
I don't hold people in contempt for being thrust into no-win situations, nor do I defend such unfairness on the grounds of 'well, he's a creepy old dude.'
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