Dead characters should stay dead (spoilers?)

[Remedi]

Lahabrea had third grade powers and he was a fourth grade ascian. Change my mind

[Yuyuka3]

Watch this, we're gonna go to another shard where his alternate version yet lives.
Imagine this, you spot him - he smiles sweetly at you (he doesn't know you) que zoom in on your character making a sad, yet bittersweet expression.
And that would be it, you both part ways. That'd be a huge gut wrencher.

Unless Haurche on the first is a cackling villian, I'd laugh my ass off but sob like a baby if we had to put him down.

Tbh if we meet the alternate versions of the scions that would be hilarious, imagine meeting post-development Alphinaud, the SASS.

That would destroy me...

Though I think they mentioned that it's not very common that there are doppelgangers on different shards, since their histories etc. diverged so much over time. So, I'm afraid that won't happen...

[Cilia]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you.

But, I'm super interested to hear your thoughts on Louisoix vs. Gaius when you juxtapose their objective positions versus your subjective analysis of them. [...]

Gaius' situation was profoundly more complicated than Louisoix's, and didn't have the easy out of "magic" either. (Damn deus ex machina...)

Louisoix was trapped on the Cartenau Flats staring down Bahamut. He's a bit tired after using Sacred Soil to protect himself and the 1.x Warriors of Light, uses a powerful seal to temporarily restrain Bahamut, and then sends the WoLs into a separate space-time to keep them safe. Flash to white, nobody knows what happened. (Deus ex machina! Kind of...)

Gaius is trapped in the exploding Praetorium. He's exhausted after fighting the Warrior(s) of Light hand-to-hand, then twice in the Ultima Weapon. There's fire and explosions everywhere. Airships are falling out of the sky. The entire place is falling apart, and he's just left there. Even if he didn't get killed by some explosions, there was always the possibility of being buried under rubble, and there has to be a limit to what his enhanced Garlean constitution allows him to tank. Hell, he appears to pass out before we fight Lahabrea he's so exhausted. And, unlike Lousioix, his inability to use magic means that can't be used as an easy way out - he'd have to still have the stamina to withstand the explosion(s), the luck to not get buried under rubble, and some way to get out of Eorzea back into Ilsabard (sp. the Burn) without any money or support while attracting no attention to himself. Somehow, Gaius managed all that... and, other than his clothes in being in tatters, little worse for the wear. It beggars my belief.

(And it's true the Warrior(s) of Light can do that kind of thing and often, but they have literal divine assistance. Magic, folks!)

In short... Louisoix was able to use magic and thus cheat via deus ex machina. Gaius was, for most intents and purposes, playing by real-world rules, and there was a lot more he had to deal with and without the easy out of magic. Neither were confirmed alive or dead, but Gaius had a lot more going against his survival. (And for the record I considered them both gone after their first "death.")

[Remedi]

Yes but you need to consider also the context. Up till then the garlean generals that died were all be shown to exhale their last breath in front of you, 4.1 reinforced the notion by having Nero reappear and he was the only tribunus that merely disappeared.
This kinda gives you the idea that unless the character had a passing on screen, their situation wasn't sure.

As I said Gaius was in schroedinger mode, because all the hints pointed towards a death and being alive at the same time. Probably the writers weren't sure yet what to do with him and essentially gave him an "ending" where it was possible to both have him die or being "revived" if they ever found a way to use the character again.
Now it's true that magic and physical prowess should be considered, but it could just be a case of shoddy writing in that point. Afterall I'm not really sure how would quantify magic in this setting because the rules and limits of it aren't exactly shown, aside from the lorebook I think.

[DPZ2]

One only has to observe Nanamo's handmaid speaking with Lolorito in cut-scenes after the "Chaos" to understand the implications ...

That, and it would have been really unpopular to execute Raubahn off-screen.

[Cybylt]

I think Nanamo's the only one I'd say is was truly poorly done. As what Moose pointed out, usually if I take a sleep aid I, you know, fall asleep. I don't go into a gagging death spasm.

[LineageRazor]

and some way to get out of Eorzea back into Ilsabard (sp. the Burn) without any money or support while attracting no attention to himself.

Well, this, at least, isn't THAT hard to explain. Remove armor: Gaius -> Garlean. Wear hat: Garlean -> everyman. The fact that high-ranking Garlean officers are never seen without their armor makes it awfully easy for them to shed their identity when needed.

Don't get me wrong - I still think Gaius would have had to work hard for his escape - but maintaining anonymity was not a particularly tough nut to crack.

[ObsidianFire]

Before he conquered Gyr Abania, Gaius also conquered parts of Ilsabard and Othard. And out of all the high ranking garleans we've run into he's also the most reasonable talker. I can very easily see the people who benefited from his conquests deciding to hear him out before turning him into the Empire. And then deciding not to go that route once he did start talking.

Also, Gaius was a legatus. If anyone has the knowledge and training about how not to draw the Legions' attentions on themselves, it would be him. In fact, he's probably spent decades trying to find people who were doing exactly that. Turning that knowledge on its head probably wasn't that difficult either.

[Con_Carne]

I just wanna Papalymo and Nael van Darnus to revive once more (maybe not now, just if I see they revive another supposed dead character xD). I just hope Gaius and Elezen Zenos have great relevance in 5.0, if not... Why revive them when they were dead?

[Nalien]

I'd actually love it if they retconned Nael van Darnus' death... Rather than have him mortally wounded, just have it so he was so significantly wounded as to no longer serve (maybe him and Raubahn can be buddies), and that's why Eula Darnus took up the mantel of White Raven...

I always wished they'd gone more into House Darnus holding the Garleans secrets of Allag... Technically we never met Nael of course, so bringing him back in this fashion wouldn't be reviving the White Raven we knew, but I mean... Someone with the secrets of the Allagan Empire couldn't possibly be useful for opening royal gates or devising a means for Gaius to actually take down deathless shades...