I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about people who hate Gladiolus because of his behavior in Chapter Ten. He acted like a jerk, yes, but I always assumed that people could see that anger for exactly what it actually was. It wasn’t about being a jerk at all, and I think Ignis didn’t retaliate because he knew this.
Gladiolus doesn’t handle emotions well. I mean, that’s just a fact. He likes to joke things off, and when he can’t joke them off, he gets angry. He solves things with brute strength and harsh words because for him, that’s what works.
When he’s giving Noctis a ‘pep talk’ on the way to the Titan, it’s pretty damn harsh. It’s basically a ‘suck it up, Princess’ sort of pep talk. And what we see later, after Altissia, is the more volatile version of this.
Gladio is scared, and he feels like he’s failed. They lost Luna, he wasn’t able to protect Ignis or Noctis from what happened to them- in his mind, he’s failed as a shield. Noctis is hurt, Ignis is possibly permanently maimed, and there’s nothing that Gladio can do about it.
He can’t brute force his way past this. All he can do is try to keep doing his job, his job that he failed at already once before. And when he has to sit here and watch Noctis start to fall apart, he’s once again left with a situation he can’t change with his usual tactics. So, he gets angry. He lashes out. He lashes out at Noctis because he can’t do anything to help his king through this, and he lashes out about Ignis because he feels like he can’t protect Ignis anymore, while Ignis insists on walking blindly into danger (pun intended). He knows how risky it is for Ignis to come along, and his worry and feelings of helplessness translate to more anger.
Ignis knows this; which is why he doesn’t stop Gladio until he’s pushed a bit too far. He knows that putting a lid on the volcano before it vents steam will just cause a bigger explosion later. He still lets Gladio know when he’s crossed a line, but he doesn’t prevent him entirely from dealing in the way he knows best.
Gladio came across as a jerk. He said awful things because he’s trying to handle the situation in the only way he knows how- with a sharp tongue and a sharper sword.
