GRAҰ C㊉MMANÐER ℛᏗᏉᏬᏕ Ɲᢩ★ℵ ℱᏝᏋᏬᏒ

She’s quite a popular choice, so let’s throw the cutie Iris into the mix! :D @neko-otaku13

Iris: “Wow, it’s really great to be able to travel with you guys! It’s like our own adventure.” Gladiolus: “Just be careful, okay? Lot of monsters out there, ya know.” Iris: “I’ll be fine, Gladdy. I have all of you guys here!” Noctis: “Yeah. Totally.” Prompto: “For sure!” Ignis: “You are safe in our hands.” Ravus: “I cannot make any promises.”

—

Ravus: “Amicitia.” Iris & Gladiolus: “Yeah?” Ravus: “…I suddenly had the horrible realization that there are two of you now.”

—

Iris: “So you’re Lady Luna’s brother, right? That means you’re from Tenebrae!” Ravus: “It seems the Amicitia intelligence runs in the family…” Iris: “What are the flowers like there? I heard the Sylleblossoms are beautiful in Tenebrae.” Ravus: “They are beautiful, that fact remains true. Seas of blue and violet that spread all across the land.” Iris: “Do you ever miss Tenebrae…?” Ravus: “Yes… Just as you most likely yearn to return to Insomnia.”

—

Iris: “So only Prompto gets to call you Rae, right?” Ravus: “It was not my desire to be named as such…” Iris: “Can I give you a nickname too?” Gladiolus: “Yeah, Ravus. Can she?” Ravus: “…Yes. You may give me a ‘nickname.’” Iris: “Ravvy it is then!” Ravus: “What? No-“ Noctis: “Ravvy, huh?” Ignis: “It has a charming ring to it.” Ravus: “What have I done to deserve this…?”

—

Ravus: “Amicitia.” Iris & Gladiolus: “What’s up?” Ravus: “…Alright. I need a method to distinguish one Amicitia from another.” Gladiolus: “You could just call us by our first names.” Ravus: “And allow you to think that I am being pleasant with you? Absolutely not.” 

—

Ravus: “Brute.” Gladiolus: “What?” Iris: “Wow, he really did respond to it. You’re not supposed to answer to such mean names, Gladdy!” Ravus: “I was showing honesty when I claimed that he would. He has become soft and weak. I leave his rehabilitation to amend this issue to you now.” Iris: “Roger that, Commander!” Gladiolus: *sighs*

—

Ravus: “Amictia.” Iris & Gladiolus: “What is it?” Ravus: *heavy sigh* “The little Amicitia.” Iris: “Yeah, Ravvy?” Ravus: “Please cease referring to me as that…”

—

Iris: “CRSSH. Little Amicitia, making contact with Sunshine Boy. Over. CRSSH.” Prompto: “CRSSH. Sunshine Boy to Little Amicitia. Doing alive, doing well. Nice, nice. Over. CRSSH.” Iris: “CRSSH. Roger that, Sunshine Boy. CRSSH. Commander R, what’s your status? Over. CRSSH.” *the two stare expectantly at Ravus* Ravus: … *heavy sigh* “Commander R, wishing for a quick death. Over… CRSSH.”

—

Ravus: “You are quite agile in battle, Little Amicitia. It is extremely impressive.” Iris: “Thanks! Gladdy’s the one that helped me train. Because one day, I’ll be the best bodyguard in the Amicitia clan.” Ravus: “I would certainly trust my life in your hands that I would your idiotic brother.” Gladiolus: “You gotta stop bagging on me in front of my sister, Ravus.” Prompto: “Actually, he does have a point. I sometimes wonder if I can trust you, big guy.” Gladiolus: “Shut up, Prompto…”

—

Nif fam

I’m going to start with my smol cinnamon roll. (Who could easily kill me) Ravus!

Fighting Style: His fighting style would probably be identical to Noct when he uses the sword of the father. If you pay attention when Noctis uses the sword, it bears more similarities to Ravus’ fighting style than anything.

His link attack would quite possibly be him and Noctis dashing in from different sides then jumping into the air slashing the sword down.

Weapon Types: He would probably be most suited for swords, not the big ones-even though he probably could if he needed to. Ravus uses a Fleuret however, and it relies more on wrist flexibility than entire arm movements.

His secondary equip would be the obvious spell, and perhaps a Lance or daggers. I would even go out on a bit of a limb and suggest that he could use one of the royal arms, but that seems like a stretch.

Gear: Ravus would probably have the coat/no coat equip. (How would that look? I’m just wondering, I’d likely keep his coat on, but whatever.) And maybe some casual wear as well.

I don’t imagine he’d have much unless the Kingsglaive clothes from when he was a kid were utilized.

Dialogue: Oooh! This is a good one! I think his dialogue would change with only Noct and Luna.

Healing Anyone: “Don’t falter now.”

Healing Noctis (1): “You are a king! Act like it.”

Healing Noctis (2): “Need some aid “chosen one?”“

Healing Luna: “May your strength never fail you.”

Running To Heal Someone: “Hold your ground for awhile yet!”

Special Move (1): “You needn’t pester me!”

Special Move (2): “Let’s end this.”

Special Move (3): “Meet your demise!”

Banter Pre-fight (1): “Maybe you should attempt to actually hit them.”

Banter Prefight (2): “Let’s not throw ourselves around senselessly this time.”

Banter During Fight (1): “Clean up your act or I’ll trip over you!”

Banter During Fight (2): “Keep that up and we may actually win.”

Losing A Fight (1): “I see no other option than to retreat!”

Losing A Fight (2): “This can be fought another day Noctis. But only if you live.”

Approaching A Fight: “Be on the ready. Hostiles are close.”

Dismounting a chocobo: “Rest well.”

Approaching a campsite: “Will we be retiring?”

Agreeing: “Agreed.”

Special Moves: While I won’t come up with names for these, I can try to speculate what they might be.

The first one would be where he runs at the enemy and slashes them a few times. The other could be a forward lunge while bringing the sword down and the last could be an aerial flip, bringing the sword down on the enemy.

Ardyn is the most interesting character in FFXV, indeed. Mysterious man of no consequences. Despite his horrible actions, a lot of people being sympathetic to him, because Trash Jesus is very charismatic person with aura of tragic, misunderstood hero, who was punished by terrible Gods for nothing.

But people simply ignore a big elephant in the room.

Ardyn didn’t cure Starscourge. 

He didn’t fullfill God’s task, he absorbed Starscourge within himself, but didn’t destroy the plague properly. 

But why? Why didn’t he sacrifice himself like Noctis? Why did once selfless and kind man choose the path of Accursed?

There is popular fanon that Ardyn was both - Chosen King and Oracle, but I doubt it. There is no evidence for it, aside once dropped “healer” during Ardyn’s speech. But nature of Ardyn’s “healing” was different from actual healing.

One more reason why I didn’t support Oracle!Ardyn fanon - Oracle bloodline has already existed 2000 years ago.

In the distant past, Bahamut, the Draconian, descended to the mortal realm and graced the people of Tenebrae. From among them, he handpicked a pious maiden and bestowed upon her the power of the Stars and his trident. Using these gifts for the good of all, she became the first Oracle—she who joins heaven and earth.

In Cosmogony books Chosen King always portrayed with the First Oracle behind his back.

The Crystal and Ring of the Lucii were delivered to the king of Lucis by the astrals before they entered a deep sleep.

Ancient King had Crystal and Ring. Covenants with Gods were forged. But something went wrong. But something stopped him. 

Okay, here is my theory. 

Ardyn didn’t want his Oracle to die.

[If you don’t like the idea of another forced lovestory and idea of straight Ardyn at all, you can replace Ardyn x Oracle with Ardyn x someone significant to Ardyn, who’s death was required to fullfill the Prophecy. I went with Ardyn x Oracle as example, because it helps to cover massive amount of plotholes in noctluna storyline. I included another variants under the cut.]*

[you can also said that Ardyn x Oracle or “Ardyn wished to save his s/o” wasn’t mentioned in game. But Ardyn’s backstory is very vague and almost nonexistant in game. More information about Ardyn spread across different media (Ultimania, guidebook, interviews). E.g. only recent DLC revealed that first Chosen King had his own Shield and Ardyn has his own Sword of Father]

Just like Noctis he fell in love with her and just like Ravus he wanted to find a way to save her from her destiny.

Why I think so?

Usually we tried to find answers in the past, but due to “glorius” FFXV storytelling I would pay attention to the present, specifically to Noctis x Luna plotline.

Since the first day of release I had wondered why Luna didn’t join Noctis and bros after Insomnia’s fall. She loved him, she wanted to hear his voice once again… but she went her own way. The pursuit of Imperial army wasn’t a big problem, because her brother was in charge of Nifflheim military. But for some reason she avoided Noctis’ company.

It doesn’t make sense at the first sight.

It makes sense if we assume that 2000 years ago happened incident when certain Chosen King failed his job, because he wanted to save Eos, but without Oracle’s* sacrifice.

The earliest accounts of covenants are found in ancient times dating back to the time of the Cosmogony, some two millennia ago. According to such tomes, the rites are a means by which the Oracle summoned forth the gods, that she might make the will of mortals known to the divine.

Lunfreaya is Oracle. She knew about Prophecy, her and Noctis’ fate, Ardyn’s identify and many other important things. I’m pretty sure that she also knew why previous Chosen King was a mistake didn’t comply his mission to cure Starscourge.

[don’t forget that she was trained by Shiva in disguise]

Luna’s illness is weird thing, which seems unnecessary on first sight. Why should we care about it, when she is already dead? What’s the point of this ass-pulled revelation?

Now imagine if Noctis was aware about her illness. Imagine if Luna joined chocobros after events of Kingsglaive. Imagine her travelling with them, making covenants with Gods, helping Noctis with trials… and slowly dying.

What would Noctis do if he learned “price of the covenant”?

I think we know the answer.

Until Luna’s death Noctis didn’t see himself as Chosen King. He wanted to save Luna and nothing else. He fought against Empire, he wanted to beat the shit out of Ravus, because he thought that Ravus hunted Lunafreya, he would have done everything for her, but he didn’t know what actually killed Luna. He was misguided by Luna herself.

[and then Lunafreya… told Noctis about Prophecy again]

It also explains why Gentiana didn’t help to save Luna in Altissia. Luna should’ve died. Her own precense kept Noctis from fulfillment his duty as Chosen King.

Almost everyone, who knew about Prophecy, tried to hide from Noctis horrible truth about his fate and, which is more important, Luna’s illness. Gentiana, Regis, Luna, Ardyn (just how fucked up is plot of this game if “good guys” used exactly the same methods to manipulate Noctis as main villain) deprived him of any chance to change something. Looks like they were afraid that Noctis can choose another path, isn’t it?

I put Luna’s illness over Noctis’ future sacrifice, because Noctis was ready to die young. It was revealed in Ignis Brotherhood Episode, when Noctis realized that like his dad he will spend his life sources to hold the Wall around Insomnia. Ofc, he didn’t expect to die like in this one cutscene, but he was ready to die anyway. Luna is whole different thing. Her death was last straw for him.

Although, there was a moment, when Noctis had a chance to learn the truth from another character, who was also informed about Prophecy and constantly tried to mess up with it.

Back to chapter Five, when Noctis met Ravus first time. There is a common misconception about this scene, a lot of people thought that Ravus wanted to kill Noctis and Ardyn saved him.** But I think that real reason why Ardyn interrupted them was this particular line:

Ravus told Noctis about trials and consequences, but Noctis didn’t mind about it… and you know what happened later. 

Congratulations, Noctis, you fooled yourself.

[now there is another big question - why Luna didn’t write Noctis about Ravus’ true position?]

After this event Ardyn took Ravus on leash. Ravus himself wasn’t dangerous for Noctis, but Ravus’ knowledges and intentions were dangerous for future sacrificial lamb. Remember: Noctis shouldn’t have a choice.

People compare FFXV with FFX and FFXIII a lot. These games are opposite to each other. In FFX and FFXIII characters didn’t accept their fate so easy as characters in FFXV, they fought for their lifes and lifes of their beloved (Lightning and Snow wanted to save Sera, Sazh wanted to save his son, Tidus wanted to save Yuna), they fought against destiny, broke the rules and won. 

It always bothered me that chocobros never demonstrated any serious resistance. But, well, they simply didn’t know what’s going on. They were desinformed from the beginning. 

[That one character in FFXV who just wanted to save his sister was labeled as villain and turned into monster. Just think about it]

Now back to Ardyn and his possible past. Imagine him travelling in company of his King’s Shield, Oracle and may be his own versions of Prompto and Ignis. Imagine them fightning daemons, camping, making covenants with Gods…

But something went wrong. Oracle is dying. Ardyn wanted to save the world, but not for this price. He tried to find a loophole… and he was tricked or made a deal with Ifrit. From perspective of mortal man it was perfect deal - he can save everyone by healing absorbing Starscourge into his own body without sacrifices. But from Astrals’ point of view it was nothing. It was temporary solution.*

I never liked Noctis that much***,but I think that his situation was horrible. People that are most dear to him treatened Noctis like possible failure aka Ardyn 2.0. They were afraid that if he finds out the truth, he will get out of control. They did everything to prevent Noctis’ possible resistance to his fate.

All these people prioritized Prophecy over Noctis’ life, happiness and free will.

Just like Ardyn.

It wasn’t even “kill one to save many”.

Everything is wrong with Final Fantasy XV story.

I mentioned in the tags of this post that I had an actor!AU for ffxv… and I wish to share my headcanons with you.

Ardyn is nothing like the character he portrays. He’s a really good actor, the rest of the cast really likes him because he’s actually a really cool guy when he’s not The Accursed.

@oceanicchimera yes, King!Noctis and Ardyn do dance sometimes off-set. But it’s more along the lines of the dance competition from Guardians of the Galaxy because they’re both dorks who can’t dance.

Ravus is the one who messes up his lines the most, with Noctis at a close second. 

See, Ravus is also nothing like the character he portrays. Ravus is really chill. Ravus really hates wearing that singular colored contact. Makes his eye itch.

Ravus and Luna are still related, but they’re cousins instead of brother and sister. (Gladio and Iris are still bro and sis)

Ignis is the biggest prankster on set. As in, Prompto walked into his trailer at one point and it was just completely filled with balloons. There must have been a hundred of them. He’s very exasperated.

Gladio’s tattoo is just stage makeup, but after the movie he considers getting the tattoo for real. It’s badass.

Ignis: “What do you mean I go blind offscreen?”

King!Noct always trips over something because the shoes on his outfit have no traction whatsoever.

Everyone on set jokingly calls the movie “Bachelor Party Gone Wrong”

The cup noodle thing with Gladio was a complete accident. There was a scene where he was asked what his favorite food is, and instead of saying something along the lines of “a hearty steak, medium well,” he forgot and said “a hearty bowl of cup noodles, boiled to perfection, with the absolute best ingredients” and everyone else stayed in character for the scene. It was so hilarious that the producers decided to leave it in. Edits to the script were made. 

^^The stage direction “angrily eat cup noodles” was created from this. 

Noctis had a lot of trouble during the Leviathan fight because something was always wrong with the robotic rig and it would randomly lock up and stop. There’s one take in particular that’s going very well until Noctis abruptly gets out of shot. The camera moves back to him hanging there, slowly zooming in on the betrayed look on his face.

Whenever Prompto messes up his lines, he either continues in whatever tone he was carrying while saying increasingly hilarious things or slaps a hand to his forehead and lets out a very soft scream (anguished noise)

Ignis, right before Noctis comes on set for the reunion scene: “Ten years ago I lost my dear friend Noctis” / “Quit telling everyone I’m dead!” / “Sometimes I can still hear his voice.”

Gladio was swinging his sword for a fight scene, but he swung it too hard and it literally just snapped in half. He stopped for a second, then turned and looked directly at the camera, mouthing the words “I’m so sorry”

Prompto goes “pew pew” and “bang bang” whenever he shoots his gun (like Harrison Ford and Han Solo)

Regis reads the script and he’s like, “Oh… I die… what…. what a surprise………” (Regis is like the Sean Bean of our world, his character always dies)

The bros are exactly like their real-life VAs on social media. They answer all kinds of questions and it’s great.

Ravus has a tumblr account, but there’s only one post, and it’s this one. There are no tags. The title of the blog is, simply, “Sycophancy.” (He was very amused with Ardyn’s line.) There’s no description. His url is akin to those of the bots that wander the site. He follows several blogs, but does not interact with any posts. No likes, no reblogs. He’s the fandom phantom.

Ardyn is like the Sebastian Stan in the social media. He provides the fandom with his own sad headcanons about his character like Seb does with Bucky. (Except Ardyn is very avid on the fact that he is the villain)