What I love about the Note from Gladiolus—apart from it being just all around sweet—is how it shows in so few words the dynamic between Ignis and Gladio.
Gladio is a hot head, this is no secret. He was also trained both as a Crownsguard and future Shield of the king, so he must be used to barked out orders and efficiently keeping people in line. He yells at Noctis and Prompto all the time, so really, Gladio causing a ruckus on the other end of a comms line should not be surprising to the player, who, as Noctis, has been scolded and reprimanded by Gladio too many times already at this point in the game.
It is therefore pleasantly surprising to be playing as Ignis and suddenly get an apology like this from Gladio. Because Gladio doesn't yell at Ignis. Most of Gladio's lines addressed to Ignis are positive (he's basically Iggy's cheerleader). He has maybe one yelled out line to him, "Watch where you swing that thing!" when you play as Ignis and attack near Gladio, to which Iggy just replies with a chill, "Apologies." Contrast this to the equivalent exchange when you play as Gladio and swing at Iggy, Iggy gives an unimpressed, "Whose side are you on?" to which Gladio, in turn, replies with a more panicked-sounding, "Sorry!" They just have this funny dynamic where Gladio folds against Ignis. When Noct crashes the Regalia Type-D and Ignis falls on Gladio, Gladio does nothing and just waits for Ignis to push off. In contrast, if Gladio falls on Ignis, Ignis will push him away and scold him, to which Gladio will hold up his hand in apology.
The point is, for all that Gladio gets pissed at everything and everyone, he is immensely patient with Ignis. Amusingly, Ignis, for all his patience with everyone else, is shortest when it comes to Gladio. It is as though whatever rule they go with when it comes to other people does not apply to the other. Ignis does not filter as much with Gladio; Gladio, in turn, puts down the tough act most often with Ignis, and even seems perfectly content to follow his lead (literally refers to him as "Captain" a few times).
Therefore, the scene where Gladio yells at him and Iggy just meekly takes it is all kinds of wrong for them, enough so that Gladio feels bad about it later on. Gladio won't even apologise to his own king for all the worse things he's shouted to his face, but apparently this same guy can't get over yelling at Ignis once and for a reason wholly justified, that he goes out of his way to write him an apology note halfway across a burning city.
Call it what you will—respect, friendship (because at this point I really do think Gladio regards Ignis as something like his best friend, or at the very least someone he trusts deeply that we don't even need Tabata to confirm it even though he did)—but Gladio's bias towards Ignis is one of the sweetest gems of his character. I think there is so much that the developers still could have done for his character in this game, but if they had to establish one thing, I'm glad they went with, "Okay, Gladiolus likes Ignis a lot, and we ought to show that."
titsay
dededos
kianamaiart
annaxmalina
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
izzy806
