UGH I EXACTLY AGREE ON YOUR IGNIS POST! it drives me crazy when people do that to his character -____- !
like….Not that it’s that Deep™ but I’ve never understood why the fandom has completely twisted the affectionate trope of “mom friend” to actually be a literal interpretation of a maternal figure rather than a character doing his designated job. Like the joke was never meant to be taken literally but people did anyways to the point where they stereotype Ignis’s actions into being ~stone cold proof~ that he’s an actual mom figure to Noctis (as well as Prompto). Which is, and will always be, ridiculous.
Since the age of 5-6, Ignis was chosen, trained, and raised to be the confidant/attendant to the current heir to the throne, Noctis (3). (babies taking care of babies, good job Regis! Where are your child labor laws!) They’re barely 2 ½ years apart in age difference. Ignis is a young adult just like all the chocobros; He isn’t even the oldest of the group. He might have been forced to grow up rather quickly but he’s still a huge dork, ultimate punmaster, “lets look for a new angle” guy that isn’t some straight-edge, boring dude. Hell, he’s Noctis’s oldest friend. They’ve known each other since they were children, practically grew up together since childhood, and are, arguably, the closest friendship in the group because of this. Which leaves me ??? because how does being able to cook and doing the tasks/job requirements for a royal attendant/confidant/advisor make him the ~Actual Stand-in Mother Figure~ besides binary gender roles and hypermasculinity that dictate fanon interpretation of a male character?
I’m not really upset because I can kind of understand the reasoning behind this headcanon (kind of)— but it’s still a popular fanon interpretation and, in my personal opinion, a direct result of the lack of prominent female characters (which people are attempting to compensate because of this.) Like, the game doesn’t feature any maternal figures (every single mother is either non-present or dead) — You have to look up on the Final Fantasy Wiki to even know the name of Noctis’s mother! She’s never mentioned once in the actual game.
In general, women are pushed to the sidelines for the narrative of XV; either as sexualization, off-screen matricide (rip XV moms), or completely used for a male character’s development. So a character like Ignis, who has a designated job but also cares deeply about his best friend, is tasked to be an assistant which leads him to do “nontraditional” tasks that are seen as “feminine”. But why does the fandom feel the need to superimpose the mom trope on a character that doesn’t have a traditionally masculine role? It all feels really icky tbh. Iggy deserves more than lame mom jokes!
