Quote Originally Posted by Kish View Post
And your claim that Girard was doing everyone, or anyone other than himself, a service is as completely unsupported as it ever was. Your claim that he was "risking his family for the world's benefit" is even worse; I understand the chain that leads to the first (it goes, "Wanting to have something to stand on is a selfless motivation,"); I don't get what you're talking about with the latter at all. If his family (if he would even have a family without kidnapping, which is another extremely questionable claim) simply left the gate to its own devices they would be destroyed with the world or ground under Xykon's heel with everyone else in the world.
To be fair, any spellcaster who can cast 9th level spells can take anyone he wants to the Outer Planes, whenever he wants. If Girard had decided to ditch his responsibilities as a Gatekeeper and take his family with them, they could undoubtedly have carved out pretty good lives for themselves in the Outer Planes of their choice.

Although overall, I agree with your take on Girard & co. I just expect that he was more interested in defending the Gate because he saw it as his purpose in life and found it fulfilling, rather than because he was a self-preservationist at heart.