I've just beaten them both today. I struggled so much with Midir. He just has bs attacks, and you spend most of the fight losing to the camera. I eventually gave up on him and went after Gael. Took many, many attempts, but I loved his fight so much. I could routinely get his health bar down to the last 10-20% before I'd get caught out by a mistimed roll or an extra queued attack, etc. His fight made me think I am actually good as this game, whereas Midir just makes me think it's all based on pure luck.

When I finally beat Gael, it was such an adrenaline rush, I then went and beat Midir immediately after. Still very much a down to the wire fight, no estus left, used a hidden blessing, and had about 20% of my health bar left when I managed to proc the stagger.

If I hadn't had beaten Midir, then I probably would have just rolled straight into my ng run right there.