theres a post somewhere on tumblr about how in ffxv , somnus makes a better king than ardyn . & the explanation was “the gods were supposed to choose the best king , not the best person” . this is essentially the issue with adaliz & yvon .
adaliz was not only the rightful king by birth order , but the gods considered him the rightful king because he has the qualities to be a king . like somnus lucis caelum , he has charisma , he had the trust of the military , he could make the hard choices necessary for a king to make . things like making sacrifices for the greater good . for the benefit of the future . did this make adaliz the best person ? no . his pragmatic nature made the commonfolk feel like they couldn’t relate to him . he was the sun , brilliant & burning .
but , yvon was soulful & kind . yvon’s bond was with latias — the first one , as there were others in the future . latias responds to emotions . to kindness . of the two brothers , most people would immediately jump into yvon’s arms if they had to choose between them . but much as ardyn lucis caelum was a saint , his kindness made him ineffective . yvon wouldn’t be able to make the hard choices . he also didn’t want to be king .
so , why did adaliz literally destroy kalos if his brother didn’t want to have the throne ? when he knew the gods chose him , that he was the true king ? well , adaliz didn’t really know how to trust all of that 100% . so he knew , but did he believe it all ? no . that , & adaliz’ patron , solgaleo , wasn’t always around ( although , historians say that the white pyroar was an extension of solgaleo , this wasn’t a total lie , but he only became an extension later ) . but yvon had latias around all the time .
that , & the ‘ saint of kalos ’ , scion yrisviel , favored yvon in general as a person . she didn’t think he was meant to be king , she fought for adaliz to be king , but she still otherwise favored yvon . so adaliz ended up jealous . that jealousy turned into hate & led to the greatest tragedy in the history of kalos .
now , while adaliz 6500 years later has no interest in being king ( that & kalos stopped functioning like that after the death of queen roshni & her abdication of power to diantha ) , but he still very much possesses the qualities of a king , so uhh that’s that . if he had to be , he would still be “the true king , king of kings” in kalos so thanks for coming to my tedtalk
