It feels like SE are just out to kill Garlean generals.

Gaius: You start to see his side of things and start agreeing... kills him off
Regula: You start agreeing with that he says and his side of things... kill him off
Zenos: You start to see you are quite a like and agree with some things he says on what you have done... kill him off

Just feels like SE doesn't want us liking them so they decide to kill them off. Then they leave us with just bland boring characters and the story generally suffers because of it.