I never said it'd be immediate.
EDIT: Unless Inquisition has epilogue slides or something of the sort. Haven't finished the game yet. I'm just going off of what I know of the man. He seems like a warmonger rather then a capable ruler.
Still, he has his uses. Which is why I want to have all three work together, if I can only figure out how to do that.
He gives the Empire an outward focus as a unifier, a smart goal. This is either an invasion of Ferelden which is an ideal time with Nevarra going to **** full of Venatori remanents, and the revenue from the coastlands citys (Which rival the free marches for trade these days) Would quickly refill the coffers and the war would far more than pay for itself.
Otherwise through war table operations he can make peace with Ferelden and focus on the northern borders of Orlais, fortifying them against Tevinter.
Celene seems to be better at outplaying him at the game, but he clearly has more common sense and intelligence, So when he makes his plays by drawing his opponents out of the game he is far more effective at destroying them, which he came very close to doing with Celene once already.
But yeah, while I admire Celenes policies of focus on the university, pushing for racial equality (Though unclear whether this was only done because of Briala) and focus on cultural development and Gaspard persues none of these things, the key is that while both contenders are easily manipulated, Gaspard is more easily manipulated by The Inquisitor or Briala (If she has blackmail on him), Celene is easily manipulated by the whims of the court and frets to much about their opinions to commit to courses of action, She has a fear of conflict which tbh isn't a welcome trait, and is known to be indecisive and easily changeable. And while I may not like that Gaspard has no interest in the University, persuing cultural development and equality. His persuit of millitary focus is actually more urgent right now, The civil war may have ended but the Empire has severely weakened from it and its wounds still fresh, It is still quite unstable and on the verge of more instability. Gaspard is the better one for handling this imo
Tbh I think that all 3: Celene, Gaspard and Briala are idiots, but Gaspard is the lesser idiot among them
The only thing that really worries me about Gaspard is that the guy is almost 70 years old, he will likely die within a decade and then another sucession crisis will arise. We havn't heard anything about him having any kids, and his sister is now dead so who does that leave for the throne?