Thread:MMYP999/@comment-27109830-20190127114952/@comment-27416494-20190412060718

Right then, here's what I've got for them.

As the king and crown prince of their respective nations, Gaius and Zenos are known and widely feared as unstoppable one-man armies capable of casually slaughtering the armies of their enemies, all without the aid of any sort of magical or technological enhancements. They've even been able to defeat the protagonists of their games in unwinnable boss fights on a few occasions. Naturally, their great prowess in battle has greatly contributed to the growth of their expansionistic nations, which was only bolstered further when they were gifted with magical enhancements of their own.

Both swordsmen value strength above all else, but their personal beliefs on the subject are as different as night and day. Gaius is a man who believes that the strong have a duty to protect the weak, whereas Zenos is a full-on social Darwinist who only truly lives for the challenge of battle. To that end, the two of them would eventually set out to claim the power of the Gods for themselves, which they completely succeeded in when Gaius took the place of the original Maxwell and when Zenos fused himself with the primal Shinryu. Even following their ultimate defeats at the end of Tales of Xillia and Stormblood, both continued to hold on to their beliefs and lived on to fight another day. (At least if you count Zenos slashing his throat open and having his spirit go on to possess an unwitting Resistance member as surviving.)