Praetorium - Golden Gaius

Been wondering - how is it that Gaius is able to turn gold during Praetorium when Garleans cannot use magic? Is it something inherent to his suit, and if so, why wasn't it pass produced?

To be honest I think it's just for fun, not something meant to make a whole lot of sense. If I had to give it an explanation maybe it adds some sort of anti-aetherial coating to his armor? Nero has something similar in that his suit can manifest itself and disappear at the push of a button. It probably wasn't mass produced because A: technology is time consuming and expensive, and B: Garleans are egomaniacs to the extreme, you really think they're gonna let common footsoldiers wear the same grade armor as them?

It might have been reproduced, if you think about it. The high ranking Garleans we encounter later seem to have vastly better armor than Nero and Gaius did. It's entirely possible the technology used in their equipment was later refined into what is used by Varis, Zenos, and others.

According to the Gilded Magitek Armor mount, the gold plating is resistant to magicks.

And no, common foot soldiers don't have access to that type of stuff. High-ranking Garleans have access to better equipment, often personalized to match their combat style.

I like to imagine that he keeps glamour prisms on hand just for the sake of dramatic costume changes.

He borrowed the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman before the fight.

The Wastonian lore answer is what we learned from the Gilded Magitek Mount - an alloy coating to protect against magics. The Doylist answer is 'shiny gold means Harder Phase Upgrade Rule of Cool'. The amusing answer is Gaius is dramatic and he also loves Rule of Cool and spent expensive dyes on it. My favorite Praetorium run joke is that Rhitahtyn, Livia, and Nero were his three retainers, and while some were helpful retainers that brought back dyes, Nero was a roof and/or one fish retainer.

Now that I think about it- we haven't been told what alloy is used for the gilded look- unless maybe it's the Pyrgian gold ore that you gather in Garlemald?

His power of monologue let's him go Super Saiyan of course.

But seriously, probably just some Magitek stuff.

Considering who founded the empire and is the basis for modern Garlean culture, there's a probably a rule somewhere that says anything you do has to be as overly dramatic as possible.