I think my favorite thing
My favorite thing about Episode Ignis was that what Ignis did…
It wasn’t for the Astrals. It wasn’t for the Planet. It wasn’t for the Chosen King.
Not the King of Light. Everything Ignis ever did, it was because he believed in the little boy he met when he was five years old. It was the little boy he watched become a man. It was the boy he would sneak out of the Citadel with, just so they could watch the stars. It was the little boy who painted stars in mud across the floor in the throne room. It was the little boy who would scribble in Ignis’s favorite astronomy books. The boy who nearly died and, when Ignis found out of a treat that may have made Noctis smile, spent the next 12 years trying to recreate that.
It was not the Chosen King that made Ignis learn the court. Nor did it make Ignis read piles upon piles of paperwork in preparation to be the advisor to the King. No. It was his belief in Noctis, in the young man who was angry at the world and sullen, the boy who had pulled in on himself. It was the same boy he watched pull in on himself and slowly, ever so slowly, come back to life.
Ignis and Noctis? They were best friends. Like, life-long friends. It wasn’t just “Ignis was the advisor and Noct was the prince.” That doesn’t explain the connection those two had.
Here’s the thing, as well. Ignis didn’t have to stay with Noctis. Not like Luna had to stay with him, or Gladio had to stay with him. Those two were born to give their blood to the Lucis Caelum line. Ignis’s family served as advisors, yes…. but it isn’t the same. Why? Because Ignis always had a way to back out. He wasn’t sworn in blood like the Amicitia family and the Nox Fleuret family.
Now, this brings in Regis.
Did Regis originally set Ignis to be Noctis’s advisor when he was five? Yes. But no matter which version you play, the focus of that scene and the subsequent uses of it throughout the gameplay… they all focused on Noctis. Ignis didn’t make a promise to Regis. He made a promise to the little boy who took his hands so gently and smiled.
Do I wish we got to see more of Ignis’s life outside of Noctis? Yes. God, it would be great to see, and great to know. But at the same time, I am willing to accept Ignis and Noctis’s interactions far more simply because they know each other better than anyone else does and Episode Ignis explained why Ignis was that way.
Ignis loves Noctis more than his life, than the life of the planet, than anything. That all-consuming and terrifying love… It’s a lot. I have never had that love before, and I doubt I ever will. But it is nice to think that Ignis was the one person who was wiling to die for Noct not because of a prophecy or blood requirement, but because he didn’t want to live in a world without Noctis in it.
He openly defied everything he knew, either way you look at it. He defied the Gods, the Kings of Lucis, everything…
All because he wouldn’t let that little boy he shook hands with so long ago die.
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
vaporwave
kaledo-art
