Quote Originally Posted by Cilia View Post
While I would also like Gaius to come back, as he was a good and honorable opponent for the most part who we could have been friends with under better circumstances, he was stuck in the exploding Praetorium we ourselves barely managed to escape. While he can come back, perhaps reformed as Nero seems set to, that would be a bit of a Deus ex Machina in my opinion unless they did it really well.
Gaius made a lot of sense and made some really good points about the Twelve and the Primals, to the point where really I was wondering why we were fighting him by the end of 2.0 and seriously considered that joining him might be the better option. Except of course for the fact that he's a murderous megalomaniac... So, honorable? Don't think that's possible for a guy who believes that ends justify the means. If he decided to get out of his own head and actually work with us though, there's no doubt that he'd be a strong ally if only as a physical fighter, but he would still be worse than useless against a Primal. Unless not being able to use magic also means that Garleans can't be tempered, which is actually a thought that just came to me.

Aside from being out of commission... who knows. It might be an impractical solution, or it could be because Lolorito and Teledji were already going at it. Where they learned about it from, who knows? Maybe it was even... an Ascian! Dun dun dun!
Didn't they already mention where they found out about it from? Ie, they were digging up Carteneau and there it was.

If you're referring exclusively to the Waking Sands raid... the casualties were likely a result of Livia's rather loose morality (and sanity). He probably told her to go capture the Archons, and well... she's kind of a psycho bitch, so wouldn't care how many casualties she caused - her orders were to capture the Archons, anything else she could take liberties with.
Definitely not exclusively, but among other things, yes, Waking Sands was particularly forefront. It's not like the Garleans don't have a bloody history of subjugating other nations though. You talk of Livia's loose morals as if Gaius doesn't share them too, but keep in mind that despite the fact that he was saner than she was, he was just as morally ambiguous with a mentality of the ends justifying the means. He wouldn't exactly have complained about a whole contingent of his foes being wiped out in one go. At best it would be a "oh well" moment for him. Btw, it seemed as though her orders were to capture the Warrior of Light but she took the liberty of capturing whatever Archons, and Minfilia, that were there.

Gaius was definitely a true believer, but to be fair, he had some valid points even if he was too extreme to really be good. He was also definitely a professional, practical man who relied on his own abilities instead of a deity, which is why I respect him so much.
His beliefs about the Primals and the Twelve definitely made me respect him, at the least, not to mention what he said about the nations of Eorzea being weak; his attitude of ends justifying the means and endangering both innocents *and* our friends though, not so much. Conquest was definitely more on his mind than salvation, put simply. I can still admit that outside of the context of being a Garlean megalomaniac though, Gaius would definitely be a good fighter.