Me: What if Ravus was Odin???
OK SO HERE I AM AGAIN WITH A THEORY I’VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR A FEW WEEKS NOW, BUT L I S T E N. Odin has been a prominent summon in almost every FF game, except for XV. Interesting, considering how Odin is apparently Hajime Tabata’s favorite creature in FF. (Mr Tabata-san, you have good taste.)
So which brings me to my little analysis time, bringing my argument of Ravus being somewhat of a physical manifestation of Odin.
First off, we’re going to go with appearance !!!
Odin is a daemonic appearing knight, often seen adorned in white and gold. He also has a blue-purple cape which varies depending on the game. Although in certain games, Odin is seen as a black clad knight, but it’s more common to see him in his white-based uniforms.
So here’s some concept art, as well as Odin’s probably more famous appearances from VII, VIII and XIII respectively, also from NT, because that was his more recent appearance.
Well, a lot of the details, and the white and black color scheme seen here is somewhat similar to Ravus’ clothing as well! (Although admittedly, it’s nowhere near to my comparisons of the clothing of others.)
Ravus even has similar horns when he’s daemonified. Although that is probably explained better as a left over design aspect from the FNC days. It’s still a hella good design, that beating heart?? It hurt to watch.
But if I’m being quite honest, it’s not the clothing that makes this argument work. It’s the moveset and some of the traits.
Ravus is the only character in XV to have the move, Zantetsuken. Unless you can count your glaive in comrades, he remains the sole user of such an attack. Also, another thing that is interesting is that, Odin fears lightning after it struck his blade and it fell him one day. And what does Ravus do? He channels lightning through his blade. (Which is actually probably because of Ramuh?? As he references the “Power of the storm”. BUT, also interestingly, Ramuh is very heavily involved with Odin’s lore.)
HOWEVER! Odin also deals lightning based damage in other games as well, so I thought I should add that on!
WOFF is probably the best place to gather lore, especially on the summons as they basically mesh it all into one. So you find the most info in one place! But here’s their little thing on Odin:
Odin is another classic character who has turned up in virtually every FINAL FANTASY with a summoning system. His trademark Zantetsuken can slice through anything, and he always appears with his beloved horse, Sleipnir. A mounted swordsman who can demolish any enemy with a single blow—awesome, right? No wonder he's popular. And he gets the celebrity treatment, too, playing a vital story role in more than one title.
Odin is always on the lookout for powerful warriors to test his blade on. His obsession is definitely not normal. Let's be honest here: the guy's a battle junkie. But he does have his standards; if you want to challenge him, get a sword or get out. You can see now why he was so put out to be forced to fight Lann and Reynn.
During his service to the Demon Dyad, he reputedly wandered the land, calling out, "Any swordsmen around here? Anyone? Swordsmen?" (That may or may not be a direct quote.) And a hundred years of slumber didn't do much to change his hobbies.
While it’s often quite comedic based, it does do it’s part well. So Odin is described as often having a vital role to the story, able to demolish enemies in a single blow (AGGRESSIVE GLARING AT THAT COMRADES/DAEMON/EPISODE IGNIS BOSS FIGHT). Although Ravus doesn’t have a steed, he is depicted with a unicorn motif. Yet again, I think that’s because of Ramuh.
But Odin is also described as being, roughly put personality wise, always ready for a fight, and possibly overly aggressive when it comes to battle. Which admittedly, are two very minor characteristics of Ravus, but if you look into the 13 trilogy, the games went to give him more characteristics outside of “battle hungry” and described him as more of a father figure, but also keeping in turn with Odin lashing out at myboy Hope when he thought that he was “being a hinderance and bothering”Lightning. Something that is seen in Ravus a few times as he is seen getting overly agitated and lashing out without hesitation.
While admittedly, I don’t believe the personality traits are too strongly correlating and the movesets remain as the biggest point, Odin in the XIII series, does have words on him that translate to:
By grace of Etro, let thunder herald your arrival. Come forth, sunderer of falsehood. A name in blood, a pact of truth. Odin shall rise his bond eternal and unyielding.
Sunderer of falsehood kind of stood out to me, as it was oddly reminiscent of how Ravus attempted to cut himself away from the lie he was living, while A name in blood, a pact of truth could also be a good way to describe how Ravus is with Lunafreya, he says it himself that their blood is one, and their calling is what they know to be true, despite their differing paths. Which also follows the same with a Bond Eternal and Unyielding.
Let Thunder Herald Your Arrival goes pretty much without words, and also kind of correlates to how Ravus’ first interaction with Noctis went, after a clap of thunder from Ramuh.
Another thing, this time mythology based, is that Odin sacrificed his left eye to drink from Mimir's Well of Wisdom, gaining knowledge of past, present, and future. Well, Ravus lost his left arm, which might also be because that’s a common arm to lose, but it’s rather interesting that he misses something on the same side as Odin’s namesake.
Ok, I thought I could make this more cohesive in a sense, and it’s not my strongest theory, but I did find it interesting that Odin is Tabata’s favorite summon and yet he makes no appearance in XV. And if I remember from an older interview, Tabata mentioned that he had “big plans for Ravus” which were probably carried out in Chapter 13.v.2 and Episode Ignis, but I can’t help but wonder if there were more. Especially given the Episode_R files.
But yee, I hope this is an at least interesting read?? I kinda mentioned it to my friend one day and she said I should elaborate on it so yee!! Here it is!!
