I've seen a few people calling Gladio abusive because of the train scene (I personally think it's bs but to each their own.) what are your thoughts?
Hallo! Thank you for the question! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
I have always and will always defend Gladio regarding that train scene.
We must consider some important factors:
1. Repressed feelings/Coping Mechanisms (main reason to me)
2. His duty/role in the story.
3. Lack of understanding/Stereotypes.
Honestly, I don’t think the three points can be described as separated because they all have to merge in one, so here is what I see and think about Gladio, his psyche, and the train scene.
Gladio is a man that was raised not only as a soldier, but under the concept of having to be the best soldier of the world, because it’s expected from him to be this unmovable wall, this unhumanly, impossibly strong and un-defeatable thing. I don’t know if you people know how soldiers are trained, but they’re basically trained to be cold-minded, to not lose the head, and to not let emotions overtake, so they can think 100% with the brain and 0% with the heart.
Gladio was not only trained this way, he was raised this way; we see him laugh and be playful, but that’s outside of duty. Within it, it’s always the head cool and never panicking (except for that bit in Episode Ignis when he “freaked out” because Ignis was not answering through the com).
We see it in that small freak out, I’ll talk about it later.
All in all, Gladio’s into this philosophy of “duty now, feelings later”. We can take as long as we want in-game to do stuff, but I think that canon story is all one event after the other, no breaks in between (only the necessary stops, etc.). Knowing this, I have the idea that Gladio never gave himself a chance to mourn.
We see Noctis mourn and feel bad onscreen shortly after Insomnia’s Fall and Regis’ death, but not Gladio, or any of the guys; however, Prompto does have his breakdown in his episode, as does Ignis (of sorts), but not Gladio; his episode is not self discovery and emotions, he was looking for a way to become strong for Noctis; for his duty. Always his duty, always his duty, Gladio’s centered and focused 100% in his duty through the game because he has to.
He says it himself during Titan’s trail; “when you can’t focus, I do it for you”. It doesn’t mean he’s being selfish and a cocky idiot; he’s saying that it’s his duty to focus when Noctis can’t, not something he masters, but something he’s forced to attend to.
So all the time it’s “Focus, focus, focus”, not a moment for emotions.
Let’s see, from Gladio’s perspective, all the shocking events that anyone would mourn but he didn’t:
Insomnia’s Fall. His father’s death. His king’s death. The loss of his homeland. The stress of not knowing Iris’ state (for a few days). Jared’s loss, which has to be particularly and majorly heavy for Gladio, as Jared was the Amicitia butler, and he most probably knew Gladio ever since Gladio was born, let’s say a second father or even a grandfather figure. Altissia in chaos. Lunafreya’s death.
And what I think finished affecting him, Ignis’ injury.
I don’t mean this as “omg they love each other” (which they do, just in a brotherly way). This has two sides, 1. the feelings for Ignis and 2. the personal side.
On a side, of course it would affect him to find his friend heavily injured, almost in agony, and then see him lose sight. It mustn’t be easy for anyone, to watch a dear one go through such tragedy. There’s a chart that shows the kind of relationships between the four bros individually, and Gladio’s with Ignis’ was something the sorts of “The person that understands the situation as I do”; they understand each other, and the dynamic and interaction feels like they’re best friends the way Noctis and Prompto are, if just not as bouncy and hyperactive and funny, rather serious and quieter.
Watching and living through a dear friend’s, a dear brother’s tragedy, it must be terrific. Because death can’t be helped, but to watch someone lose sight? And someone so dear to him.
And then the “selfish” side; imagine being tasked since you’re born with the only single one duty of protecting, saving and aiding the life of someone else, and watch someone else do it for you. Imagine being tasked with the only one duty of making sacrifices for one person, and watch someone dear to him do it in your place, right after you thought you were strong enough to do it yourself.
I don’t mean Gladio was angered that Ignis made bigger sacrifices, on the opposite; I think it must have destroyed Gladio.
“It was supposed to be me, not you” not a canon phrase, but one that I think must have gone through Gladio’s head a million times. He was supposed to die for Noctis, not Lunafreya. He was supposed to put the ring on, not Ignis. He was supposed to have been injured and face the Chancellor, not Ignis. He was supposed to be the one losing sight, not Ignis, not Ignis, never Ignis.
Because Gladio was raised with that idea, that he’s living just to keep Noctis safe and to go through all the hells and heavens and earths to keep him safe. So to acknowledge that he almost let Noctis die, and he didn’t because a dear friend made a huge sacrifice for him, and watch both of them at your feet, while you’re entirely unharmed?
Gladio must have been dealing with huge guilt, an enormous guilt, guilt in measures we cannot comprehend.
So we add all the previous events to the massive guilt and the struggle of watching a dear friend going through his own tragedy.
And it doesn’t take a genius to know sooner or later he had to explode.
I like to compare our emotions or “soul” to a glass of water, and each problem or tragedy etc. is a drop (or many drops, depending on the situation). Gladio’s trained to keep the water inside, calm and cool, where everyone else drops the water at times before it’s full. So Gladio naturally, whether consciously or not, started keeping all inside, a drop for each event, and half a drop for each that that he didn’t give proper care to the glass.
Until his glass was full to the top. Full to the very top, unable to take a single drop of water more.
So it’s as soon as something else happens, as soon as the tiniest of events happens, that the glass spills the content. Because even if it was a tiny, stupid, unimportant drop of water, it was the last drop of water, the only one necessary to spill the entire glass’ content.
And that’s what happens to Gladio. He has his glass full for major events, and it’s a minor one that drops it.
Its name? Noctis not putting the ring on.
Let’s retake it; Gladio has been repressing an enormous quantity of negative emotions within himself for the sake of his duty, until he became full.
So it’s not that the fact that Noctis hadn’t put the ring on what makes Gladio so angry; it’s not because of one thing, it’s because of a thousand things that were triggered by only one. Gladio talking about the ring is only the tip of the iceberg; the real thing is all under the water and out of everyone’s sights, at least out of the sight of the people that are not comprehensive or understanding enough to go further the things that are said and cannot read the subtext.
Noctis not putting the ring on was not an excuse, but it also wasn’t the only motif or reason for him to explode the way he did; it’s everything he had been carrying, hiding behind the mask of only one fact.
And here’s where enters the part of stereotypes.
We are so used to have a stereotype for each emotion that we think they’re all the same and we all react the same. We immediately link emotions to other words that we can’t get out of the zone of stereotype and into the zone of understanding and we think we all react and feel the same. We hear “sadness” and we think we all cry. We hear joy and we all think we all smile or laugh. We hear anger and we all think we yell. We hear fear and we all think we shake.
And honestly that’s not that; those are common factors that are shared among the great majority of people, but we don’t stop to understand that it’s always on different levels, different ways, and sometimes it’s not even that. There’s people that laugh when they’re scared, people who go mute and can just walk around when they’re joyful, the world is so big and vast and humankind is so unique and different and special and we’re all so different that not two people among the billions of them will ever feel the same way.
My happiness will never feel the same than yours, nor my sadness, nor my anger, and any other emotion. We can comprehend each other’s emotions but we can’t truly understand them because they’re a personal experience and only we know how we experiment them and how we feel them and how we demonstrate them.
So everyone sees Gladio raging out and screaming, frowning and shoving faces, that what we think immediately is “He’s angry”. And yes, yes, he’s fucking angry, but an emotion can be a way to demonstrate another emotion. So yes, Gladio’s angry, but we never stop to think that his anger is only the way to express other things.
I learned in a course of psychology during high school that anger is only the way to hide sadness. I’m angry at you because you were late, and it made me angry because it hurt me to feel you don’t care, which makes me sad. I’m angry at the world’s homophobia, and I’m angry because I can’t believe this much hatred exists, and it makes me sad. I’m angry at my mom for not coming to my birthday party, and I’m angry about it because I wanted her to be here and it hurt that she didn’t come (these are all merely examples).
Yes, I’m angry that you’re not putting that ring on, and it makes me angry because you’re not filling your duty when others have made huge sacrifices so you do, and honestly it hurts to see the position you’re in, the position I’m in, the position he’s in, and I feel like I’m failing you, so please do your duty because I’ve been standing a thousand hells this far for you and I can’t stand to see I couldn’t do it right and have failed you.
Things change, hm?
I think Gladio feels like he failed Noctis because Noctis is not acting as he should be doing it, and instead of feeling it’s all on Noctis, Gladio, who was tasked with making Noctis succeed, sees him fail and doesn’t see him fail but sees himself fail. Because if Noctis failed it’s only because Gladio failed (this thought, in his head).
So we add all that we know, Insomnia, Regis, Clarus, Jared, Iris, Ignis, Lunafreya, his own failure, all into one, and then one tiny fact is added, of course there’s only so much one person can take.
Back to the emotions and stereotypes, I meant to say that we all think of the word “sad” and we think everyone cries, but honestly everyone has their own way of showing sadness. There’s some that hide it, some that stay quiet, some that furiously cry, some that silently cry, some that decide to vent it into punching things, etc.
Gladio’s way of expressing sadness may as well be screaming and hiding behind anger. Because that’s how he was taught to react; no time to cry, just punch things and yell. So, considering he grew up into the philosophy of a cool, dead head, and making the terribly mixture of it with a huge, enormous repressing of emotions, he becomes conflicted, he wants to cry but his brain has no idea how to do that, and what is the only other door that’s open? Anger. So all that Gladio has to cry, he shows it through anger instead. Because that’s his sadness, different from everyone else’s, because I insist none of us show or feel the emotions the same way.
Noctis not putting the ring on probably did upset him, yes, and it annoyed him, but it was more the trigger and excuse than the entire view of his rage. Gladio’s not abusive or exaggerating or an idiot for screaming at Noctis for something that may seem so trivial; what he talks about is only the trigger, the tip of the iceberg. The real thing hides underneath and behind.
Usually, when we have a trigger of these sorts, we end up going back to the real reason even if just indirectly.
It happens a lot to me with my mom. She’s a bit explosive as well, and I’m super understanding about this issue of people’s emotions and not digging into stereotypes, and I tend to listen very well, so I’m usually her target when she wants to rant about something. And one day you can see her getting upset at me for something like not washing a fork, and three minutes into her rage, she’s talking about why her brothers don’t support or help her when she needs it.
It has nothing to do with the fork. If I wasn’t as understanding as I am, I’d think all the outrage was towards me, against me, because of the fork. But I know the fork was only her trigger, and the real reason goes deeper and into other things.
And what does Gladio say?
He starts talking about the ring, but then, a bit out of place without being too out of place “Ignis took one for you too, and for what!?”
Hm? *wiggles eyebrows*
And you know why my mom usually rages at me (without insulting or harming me in any way)? Because she knows I understand, I never yell back, and because she trusts me.
It’s easy for emotions to break free without your consent in front of people you trust.
So Gladio’s outrage doesn’t only mean he was sad, frustrated and scared, it can also speak about his trust into Noctis. Honestly, if he wouldn’t believe in him, he wouldn’t have given a damn about the ring. But he wants Noctis to grow as a mature king and fill his role and be responsible and he knows he can do it, so that Noctis is not doing it angers him because he knows he can, and it just triggered him.
Besides, Gladio grows with this idea that he has to be some sort of mentor and guide for Noctis, his protector, the brotherly figure that should be wise and that will “focus when Noctis can’t”. So the adviser having the moral down in the dumps, and Prompto having no official duty, Gladio must feel, consciously or not, that it’s on his hands to take the reins and do something, and he wants to put Noctis in his place and be the main column to keep things up.
But Gladio, by this point, is so frustrated himself. Imagine trying to lift everyone’s spirits when honestly you don’t want to or can’t. Of course it turns into frustration, because he knows what’s needed but he doesn’t have it, but no one else has it, so he tries to force himself to it, and only ends up more angered and frustrated, and his attempt to lecture Noctis turns into an argument.
And just a friendly reminder: GLADIO IS ONLY 23 YEARS OLD. Nobody can expect him to be the wisest or anything. They’re all stupidly young, so young and put into situations that would freak anyone of any age out, especially someone their age, because they’re past the “I don’t understand, so I face it fearlessly” stage and the “I understand fully and have experience enough to face it” stage,t hey’re right in the middle, where they understand perfectly the risks and the problems, but don’t know how to deal with them.
Gladio’s 23. He’s young, he’s hot-headed at times, of course, of course. It happens. People in the early twenties still don’t know where and how to go, we’re not wise or mature enough yet as much as we think we are, and situations as hard and heavy as the guys face, of course it’ll throw them off-guard and out their knowledge and reach.
To be honest, I think that to be so young, he did excepcionally good, incredibly excellent, facing everything.
Having one breakdown is just natural and logical, and it doesn’t take any credit from him. It was fair; he had gone through the journey wise and strong, much wiser and stronger than anyone should ask from someone his age. So a breakdown was very well deserved.
Thing is people don’t understand that “breakdown” is not only crying, it can also be anger, and it won’t stop being a breakdown. Different demonstrations, same thing.
And even though I’m sure I’m forgetting something because I always post stuff forgetting about the best damn arguments or parts, this is what I think of Gladio’s outrage in the train, why I understand and support and love it, and why I think it’s natural and very well needed.
I love you, Gladio.