(1.0 and Beyond Discussion) Nael van Darnus > Gaius van Baelsar?

As someone who has recently been looking into the 1.0 story and the transition to 2.0 and all the lore and fun trivia associated, I have come to a conclusion: Nael van Darnus was a badass and Gaius swooped in and tried to take on an already weakened Eorzea so he's a nerd, plus Nael's theme was better. Project Meteor also seems like it was more straightforward than Gaius' plan, although the two end goals were obviously different (at least Gaius' INTENDED end goal, but it would've likely been subverted by the Ascians to lead to the end of the world anyways) since Nael pretty much did go mad and wanted to destroy Eorzea straight up.

Anyways, thoughts on the two, their goals, similarities and differences? Are gunhalberds cooler than gunblades?

Gaius conquered Ala Mhigo, and intended to bring Eorzea under Garlean control so that he could stop their rampant primal summoning and save the world from becoming a husk, dried of aether, like the Burn.

Nael got tempered and manipulated into nuking Eorzea so that Bahamut could get free.

Gaius seems a bit better here.

Yeah, Nael got herself tempered. Not exactly a feat of accomplishment there xD.

I don't think anyone who has done the The Sorrow of Werlyt questline would even bring this into question at all. Gaius was absolutely adored by his people, and has many parallels to the WoL. He is also one of the few to battle the WoL and live to talk about it.