#They're both fantastically written characters with well done arcs that I'm happy to see whenever they show up in MSQ or side content

[witchloversupreme]

If you take a step back and really look at them, Gaius (in ARR, at least) and Edmont are actually pretty interesting foils for each other, because one is a deeply, deeply awful person who is an incredible father, while the other is one of the most moral and kind people on the planet who's given all of his kids massive, incredibly self-destructive complexes.

Like, Gaius genuinely adores all his children, even Livia, despite her incredibly disturbing fixation on him, and is very obviously gutted by the idea that they'd go to war without him to protect them, while Edmont very clearly only cared about Haurchefant, foisting all the First Born Son responsibilities on Artoirel but giving him absolutely none of the respect, and hardly remembering that Emmanellain even exists save to scold him.

Hell, even Haurchefant, even though he was the favorite, didn't get particularly better treatment because of Countess Fortemps (incredibly understandable) hatred of him, which led to Haurche becoming self-destructively self-sacrificing to try and get at least a little of the respect he deserves from his peers, and eventually lead to his death at The Vault.