#Leona watches FFXV

[leonawriter]

These are some... really interesting expressions, Ardyn?

You'd expect that if someone who’s been holding a grudge for two millennia finally gets his throne back, and then the upstart descendant of his brother who’d stolen said throne comes to get it back from him, that person would be a little more...

Proud of his accomplishment? 

Holding himself in a more regal manner?

Yet Ardyn is neither of those things. His body language is slumped - not just slouched, but outright either with his head bowed, or his body leaning back in such a casual manner, with him not looking comfortable or even in any way content. 

Which lends to the idea that he is not able to enjoy his ‘victory’, and he does not see a throne as his end goal. This might be obvious considering what he himself says, but body language is a vital clue to understanding underlying motives, and here, the body language backs up what he tells Noct, in that what he truly wants is to have his curse lifted. 

All in all, alongside the blacks and golds and reds, Ardyn looks distinctly out of place - far more than Noct does when he eventually sits there. His clothes are faded and worn, and not in the royal colours of the Kings of Lucis - if they were once, they aren’t anymore.

As for what he says?

Ardyn: I’m afraid you’re out of luck. The throne brings you here? It seats only one.

My thoughts actually drifted toward the idea that he is, yet again, at least somewhat conflating Noct with Somnus, his brother. Ardyn might not be feeling as though he can enjoy this achievement, but it is his, just like the title of Chosen used to be his, and here’s Noct, about to take all of that away again. It has to sting, even if he knows that it’s got to happen.

I also have to wonder if perhaps he’s aware of how little time left he has, and that if Noct wins here, he is going to die. 

This is the man who seems to be particular about his appearance, who messes with people to get a rise out of them, who decorates his car - and old car, which means it’s been around for quite some time, and he’s looked after it - with a moogle pom-pom, and fandom as a whole seems to pretty much universally accept that he loves chocobos.

I’d say that even a man who’s been suffering and has been getting by through pain and daemons and who wants to die, if he’s paid attention to so many of the little things in life and is now being reminded you’re going to lose all of that, then yes, I’d say that there’s probably more than a bit of-

“But why does this have to happen? It’s not fair. We shouldn’t even be in this position in the first place, I don't want to die but I can’t carry on like this either, and the idiot in front of me knows how it has to be as well. So screw it. Let’s play the parts. At least then it’ll all be over.”

[saltylandland]

Ok question time.

-Is there any hardline you don't like reading about ?

-Any other characters you like besides Leona.

-Fore the small stories can they be NSFW or swf.

-Fav chapter out of them.

-Any other games or fandoms your involved in.

This took me so long to answer thank you for your patience 🥺

1 uhhh it can depend on my mood usually, and it varies depending on if it’s nsfw or sfw but things that I never like are subjects like incest, rape, virgin kinks/blood kinks, self harm, su*cide idolization, grooming, scat kinks (that’s all I can think of rn)

if you are unsure if your story is too much feel free to msg me and explain your story/content, and we’ll talk from there!

2 when it comes to twst there are very few characters I dislike but Leona is the only character I really SIMP for ya know? The rest I simply like but Deuce, Rook, Jamil, Kalim, Trey, Riddle, Ruggie and Sam all rotate around in my heart.

3 Either or is fine! If it’s nsfw then please start with a content warning w/ what types of kinks that are in there just so that people know what there getting into when they read, it’s a given when people look at my blog that it’s 18+ but not everyone has okay relationships with certain kinks

That being said I’m going to be going through my blog and tagging everything for navigation purposes and discussions and stories you guys send will have they’re own categories as well (i.E asksNSFW or asksSFW) all tags will be in the pinned post on my blog when it’s all sorted!

4 I like chapter 1 the best, even though I can’t relate to riddle as much as Leona, but it’s not difficult in the slightest to empathize, also I like the unique message of it? That as friends you should hold each other accountable, that’s surprisingly refreshing.

Also since it’s the first chapter it was part of what sucked me into the fandom to begin with, when I think of that chapter it fills me with energy and warmth.

5 the lost boys (I have so many ideas for this omfg), I’m interested in haikyuu but I haven’t watched it yet, Ffxv, Stardew valley, the walking dead game, mha, Vikings (? Not entirely sure yet if I wanna write for them yet), castlevania, And Tolkien’s universe in general

Also feel free to send in thirst ideas and what not! I just can’t guarantee that I’ll write something lengthy in return, it may be a paragraph or 2, it could turn into a Drabble if I’m particularly inspired, or I’ll just share my thoughts! I’m just trying to avoid burn out so soon with school up my ass ya know?

[leonawriter]

Gladio: If only somebody hadn’t wrecked the car. Unbelievable...

Prompto: Would hate to be that guy! Aw, c’mon, don’t be that way. You know I didn’t mean to do it.

Ignis: Of course not. Sabotage is far beyond you.

I love this exchange partially because the opening of Episode Duscae - AKA the Demo - is so indicative of each of their personalities, but also... it’s incredibly telling for them in other ways, too.

For Prompto, especially.

I mean, after Episode Prompto, literally everything about this guy has layers.

Each one of his expressions here is a fascinating journey - just imagine being him, and the first time you’re outside of the only home you’ve ever known, you drive the Prince’s car, and sure he’s your friend but he’s also the Prince, he’s royalty, and... you crash it. You crash it, and both of your friend’s retainers aren’t letting you forget it.

And then Ignis says of course not, sabotage is far beyond you and I watched Prompto’s expression just go from dejected, to-

Oh, this is interesting. Because that expression reads to me as, Prompto’s hearing those word and thinking “They probably wouldn’t think it’s ‘far beyond me’ if they knew where I was really from.” His anxiety going into overdrive for a moment there, even if he doesn’t allow himself to dwell on it.

[leonawriter]

On the one hand, that’s... that’s nice. Sure, nice sentiment, Somnus.

But on the other hand?

Somnus is just saying “hey kid, please go die for me and kill my brother for the last time, ok?”

I mean, tbh, until we’ve seen what Episode Ardyn has in store and we know how those two really were, we don’t know for sure what they were like back then! 

But also, there’s still the way that the Kings of Yore - including Somnus at the head of this - treat anyone who puts on the Ring. If a high enough percentage of kings - or the ones with influence, at least - felt like it, I feel they could be more compassionate. 

But Ravus doesn’t even get acknowledged and loses an arm - they could have told him “we appreciate the sentiment but nothing you do would be enough”, but they didn’t.

Nyx has to bargain and plead with them just to get them to do even the slightest bit to save their own goddamn city/kingdom. And he dies for it!

Ignis loses his sight for - as far as Ignis is concerned - it being a fight to save Noct’s life and if he doesn’t do something this drastic, Noct will die. The Kings of Yore in the Ring really had no real reason to suspect Ardyn might not want to kill Noct (and I’ll give that Ardyn did look like he was at least considering it) so we’re left with Ignis being punished for... protecting the one they wanted to keep alive until they needed him to die for them?

Yeah, I’m... calling it now that Somnus truly believes that he’s doing the right thing, that perhaps he has a sense of self-righteousness and thought that he was protecting everyone by usurping Ardyn, but... I don’t think he had any real empathy or compassion, otherwise things might have turned out differently. 

Somnus is the kind of person who believes themself to be the hero of their own story, from what I heard of him while he was speaking here, so that if his brother did something awful? It’s a tragedy, but one he has to bear the burden of, and the responsibility for. If that means he has to rule in his brother’s stead? Then he will take that too. 

But it’s important not to forget that it’s a gameplay plot point that we don’t know that Ardyn is a Lucis Caelum until either he reveals it to us by words or by deeds (summoning his armiger/warping). Which means that Somnus did write Ardyn out of the history books, most likely to cover up what he’d see as a black spot on the royal family, and a taint on those early years, and the beginning of his reign, possibly also so that as few subjects as possible revolted in the face of a coup.

So, basically? Actions and consequences speak louder than words, Somnus.

[leonawriter]

And this? This is just a beautiful shot. That lighting. The posture. Everything.

[leonawriter]

Honestly this is one of those pictures that tell a thousand words.

Ardyn is closer to the dark and the night than any of the others save Noctis. He’s also not sitting down. 

Ignis meanwhile isn’t sitting down either - however, from his stance, the way he’s leaning back against the caravan? It’s clear that he is, like he’d said in the car, keeping an eye on Ardyn.

The others have positioned themselves interestingly too, with Gladio fully capable of keeping watch while talking to Prompto, who seems to be the most unguarded of them all, and Noctis isn’t facing the screen but also seems less relaxed than previous save screens, and is also facing Ardyn.

Light vs. dark, and literally every one of the four protagonists are in the light, or facing the light; Ignis is leaning against the caravan which is lit up by the lamp which is right by Gladio, and which is also shining on Prompto, and you can see that light on Noctis’ arms too, as well as how he’s  sat in one of those white plastic chairs. 

Ardyn, however, as said above, is not only the closest to the side of the screen where the night is strongest, but is also the one with the most desaturated colour palette, with even the whites/greys of his outfit being muted, and his skin more tan than the others. He’s also looking away from the light, and toward the darkness.

At a glance it’d be easy to just pass it off as ‘the four friends are suspicious of this guy and are keeping watch and the other guy is keeping his distance because hey, things are awkward’, but... artistically? it showcases a lot more about who they are as people.

[leonawriter]

OH, HELLO THERE. I WASN’T EXPECTING TO SEE YOU SO SOON.

I’d have just chosen one or two but the background stuff and the angles are all just... too good.

[leonawriter]

Something fun and interesting about the Ardyn-Prompto switch on the train is that as much as Ardyn is at fault and caused a lot of grief for Noctis, it’s... not something that I’d call the epitome of villainy and evil.

Hear me out - when I say that, I mean ‘this action does not cause me to hate or dislike this character, and does not make looking at them uncomfortable.’

Which... in theory, it should! Prompto’s my favourite character so far! Of course I should be angry and an upset at whoever hurt him or caused hurt to come to him!

Except... as I’m pretty sure Ardyn himself pointed out, that wasn’t Ardyn.

It was Noctis.

Now, I’m not placing blame on Noctis here, because Ardyn completely and totally took advantage of his unstable mental state.

But I will say that all Ardyn did was to put the pieces in place, and watch how things played out. At any point, Noctis could have figured him out, could have said “Ardyn, you’re acting weird”. Noctis is not stupid. He could also have realised at any point “Prompto’s acting weird, and I recognise those speech patterns aren’t right.” But he doesn’t. Because he’s unable to think clearly.

Also important is that Ardyn doesn’t control any of Prompto’s actions. Oh, he controls the Prompto that Noctis sees, sure, but the real Prompto? All that’s going on is that his appearance has shifted in Noctis’ eyes. Prompto has complete free will. He can say and do whatever he likes.

But also... so does Ardyn! And despite not being very helpful, he does help fight off the MTs with Noctis, and he DOES tell you when there’s something waking up again, rebooting, or getting too close to the train. I think he’s also the one who gives you the heads-up about the tanks and the last section of the fight, where you’re warping from aerial carrier to aerial carrier.

So... in summary? Ardyn is acting like an absolute trickster, in that he’s making things so that he’s causing a lot of trouble for both Noctis and Prompto, potentially having created the attack on the train in the first place (not sure on that one, but it’s possible) and yet at the same time he left Prompto free to say and do whatever he liked (he could even have gone to Ignis or Gladio and said what was happening!) and he himself actively helped Noctis in his own (albeit limited) way, and everything he did ensured that Noctis was the only one actually hurting his friend.

It’s a fascinating study of all three of them. 

Prompto is afraid of Noctis acting this way (he’s running, and for good reason, too), but he’s also infinitely confused over why his best friend is treating him like this at all. 

Noctis is so completely overcome due to his recent loss and the fact that he’s still working through the anger stages of grief. 

Ardyn, and... the way that he manipulates people into, essentially, hurting themselves so that at the end of the day, he’s given them enough outs that they could have called him out on his tricks earlier - and that in itself works in his favour in a sense, because now they’re going to be splintered apart and divided even more than before. Noct’s going to be doubting himself more than before.

[leonawriter]

Ardyn: Just to be clear, this isn’t a race, it is a chase. You are not to pass me. Lose sight of me, and you lose your way. And no tailgating. An accident would spoil the trip.

It’s fascinating just how much foreshadowing Ardyn can pack into each one of this lines?

From what I know of XV... it really is a chase. This isn’t like in IV where Cecil is trying to get to the crystals before Golbez, or VII where Cloud and the others are trying to find the Black and White Materia before Sephiroth can, to make sure that Aerith can pray to the Planet.

This isn’t a race. The protagonists are chasing Ardyn around, and as Ignis and Gladio say in a minute, first he was waiting for them in Galdin, now he’s found them in Lestallum. At points right as something important is happening. Later on, this is probably just going to get more pronounced, too. 

And thinking on it, the essence of XV is also that of the idea that you cannot fight destiny. The idea of it being a race means that you can win - Ardyn is calling the shots here, both because he’s the one who knows where they’re going, and because he’s the one with all the cards. They’re chasing him, but the moment they truly catch him and he stays caught, it’s the end of the game. 

Also, losing sight of him ends the game. Which is also foreshadowing to the fact that... if you stop having Ardyn in your line of sight, he’ll either take advantage of that, or you’ll basically... not be playing anymore. The Empire may be the enemy that Noctis and the others are expecting to be their main adversary, but they could spend forever fighting the Empire and they’d still lose the game because the Empire isn’t the main villain here.

And the ‘no tailgating’ part - to me, that says ‘don’t make yourselves threats, we wouldn’t want you to wind up hurting yourselves because you underestimated me/were reckless this early. I need you to stay alive long enough to play your parts in my plans.’

And yet... it’s all worded in a way that’s saying exactly what he wants them too hear - a simple ‘keep me in sight, don’t get lost, don’t be reckless’ sort of thing.

But knowing the endgame? Just sheds a whole new light on it.

[leonawriter]

I just realised something about Prompto which contributes to why I like him so much, and... I think I’d even wondered about it before, but never quite touched on the reason.

See, Prompto is that one member of the main cast out of all of the boys who seems to be interested in dating, in women in general, really. Ignis is most interested in cooking and taking care of Noctis, and Gladio hasn’t shown any specific interest either. Noct himself only has eyes for one woman, and that’s his fiancée. 

Based on some previous titles, the role of ‘ladykiller/flirt’ might make it seem as though the character given this role is more than a bit full of themself, potentially being pushy. See, Edge from FFIV, Zidane from FFIX has elements that he has to grow out of a bit as he matures throughout the story, and Edgar from FFVI as well - among many, many others.

That’s not to say that the characters are bad for it, or that it ruins them as a character; just that it is often something to mature out of, to grow out of, that’s irritating and annoying.

But with Prompto... I don’t see that? 

What I see with Prompto is a boy who is seeing these amazing women, some of whom are royalty, some of whom do manual labour, some of whom are mercenaries. And he looks at them with absolute adoration. 

At no point does Prompto actively pursue these people, and the only way we know that he thinks of them in romantic lights is the way that he brings them up without anyone having to even say their name. When he’s in their presence, he talks to them and refers to them, even deferring to them with the respect they deserve. He doesn’t treat them any differently!

All in all, I see someone who looks at women in the same way that I’d want to see more of; he adores them, he respects them, he practically worships the ground they walk on, would do anything for them, and when asked who he’d choose, he... has such a hard time that he doesn’t. 

I feel like if/when he did manage to find someone who liked him back, Prompto would make a good husband, because I feel like that respect and adoration wouldn’t disappear just because it’s reciprocated. He’d just go “oh. oh, uh, wow. this is happening. SHE LIKES ME BACK.”

And of course one of the others would be like “Prompto you’re MARRIED.”

Prompto’s just, “I KNOW, BUT IT’S STILL AWESOME.”

[leonawriter]

As an addition to all the Ardyn-Prompto-Noctis Train Stuff, I need to say how hearing Noctis explain to Ignis what had happened, the way he sounds like he’s crying, and “I pushed him off the train- I mean, Ardyn made me push him” and “you’ve got to stop the train” hurt so damn much.

When I say the voice work on this is damn good, I mean... damn, this is good.

They really did a good job of portraying just how broken and exhausted Noctis is, as well as the emotional agony he’s in. And, also, just how much Prompto means to him.

[leonawriter]

Okay, I finished watching through the scenario, and... it was cute? It didn’t really feel like there was all that much to it, but it was nice.

I guess I can see why certain parts of the fandom ship them together - but that doesn't mean that I do.

We get to see Noctis actually travelling with this girl, we see them get to know one another from the point of ‘I don’t even know who you are but I’m already bossing you around/being told what to do’ and ‘that was really uncoordinated’ to ‘we can sync our fight moves up’ and ‘it’s actually sad to have to say goodbye, because we’ve been through a lot.’

The argue, they make up, we get to see what it’s like when they’re fighting alongside each other. There’s teasing involved, as well as mid-battle compliments. Noctis worries over Sarah, and for good reason - ‘you’re constantly being reckless’ he tells her after he’s had to warp her out of falling from a great height in order to save one of the Hiso Alien children. Sarah also looks out for Noctis, shoving him out of the way when he doesn’t notice a monster forming behind him.

But... I think that if they were going to go that route, if Noctis really did start to have other-than-friendship feelings for this girl he’s only just met? Only spends a few hours with, at most? I figure? They’d have had him wanting to make sure that he doesn’t just go ‘see you around’, but ‘I’ll try and find you’, or ‘I want to make sure we see each other again’.

He doesn’t, though. Others can see in it what they like, but I personally think that for both of them it was a fun adventure that had a lot of danger and they saved the world of some cute aliens and they made a friend, and... that’s it. I think if Sarah made her way to Eos, Noctis would probably be excited to introduce her to all of his friends, at the same time sort of wary of what she might already know from what the Hiso Aliens told her (the cute, creepy little things that they are).

And now I wanna see Sarah and Luna talking about Noctis and sharing stories, and Sarah dishing out all of the dirt that the Hiso Aliens had on him to this guy’s fiancee, not because she’s mean, but because they’re funny stories.

[leonawriter]

Oh - and one more Ardyn thing!

This is probably minor since you can apparently have this cutscene at any time, I think? But Ardyn, unlike Ignis, is absolutely a-okay with driving in the pitch-black daemon-infested night-time. Like, seriously, if anything’s gonna tip anyone off that there’s something weird about you, it’s that, my friend.

By this point literally anyone playing would have noticed the whole “DO NOT GO OUT AFTER DARK” everywhere in neon signs. And yet, somehow... this guy hasn’t read the message. Which can’t be a simple coding failure to have him not get with the program.

[leonawriter]

“Hunter” be like “you my backup?” and Noct’s just “you... seem familiar”

I’m just like, no kidding, Noct! I think that’s GLADIO.

[leonawriter]

Proposition: I do not think that the alternate ending was ever, from its conception, supposed to be taken as an alternate ending to the entire game.

Reasoning: Ignis’ side-story is the only time in which we get to see the very timeline itself diverge in such a way. At various other points you can choose to follow different characters, or different dialogue options, which may impact the story. But those are all minor changes; if you choose non-diplomatic options when talking with the First Secretary you still manage to ‘somehow’ secure terms with her, for instance.

My thoughts are thus - Noctis, Prompto, and Gladio are all far more the sort to keep carrying on with their one path, and if they are faced with other options, are likely to choose the one that means following their heart or the ‘right course of action’, not considering what would happen if they chose the other option.

Ignis, however, is the strategist type. He plans, so that the others don’t have to.

Therefore it makes sense that the one time we see an alternate option play out in its entirety is when the strategist is given an option to do one thing or another, which could lead to vastly different outcomes.

In this case, it’s entirely likely that the alternate ending is what runs through Ignis’ mind in the time it takes to see him hesitate; this would explain why the telling of events is skewed in Ignis’ favour, with the Ring (when he does put it on) giving him its full power at one point, as well as the unsympathetic light that Ardyn himself is shown in.

If the reason why we see Ardyn as more sympathetic in the true version of events is that we’re seeing things through Noct’s eyes - which we are, given the dialogue options all control how Noct himself says things, and the actions we control are his - then in Episode Ignis the entire world is coloured by how Ignis sees things.

Ardyn is a danger to Noct, therefore he is more of a villain here, because Ignis has none of Noct’s own understanding toward the man.

I don’t think that all of it is Altissia-Ignis projecting his ideas of what a future along this path could hold, as it is very much an alternate timeline. However-

I recognised the method of storytelling from VII’s constant retelling of the Nibelheim Incident, in which we see the perspectives of each person who was there, leading to vastly differing accounts of what happened. One person says that one thing happened, another says that something else did, and for some there were only X number of people, while others saw someone else, and others still saw fewer people or a greater number.

Every person’s account is biased, based on the fact that each person telling the story is coming at things from a different perspective. In this case, Ignis.

This is again seen in the way that the story ends; Ignis’ idea of a good ending is the kind where his King stays alive, where all threats are neutralised. He sees Ravus as a generally good person who's lost his way, so Ravus is still around as well. He sees himself as able to figure out some alternate plan of action to eliminate Ardyn’s threat without Noct dying.

But... this doesn't account for Noct’s own happiness. It accounts for him staying alive, sure, but is he happy? What about Ravus’ happiness? Noct’s fiancee and Ravus’ sister is dead. Ravus even outright says at one point during the canon part of Ep. Ignis that a life without Lunafreya didn’t bear thinking of. 

Ignis is a good person who wants what’s best for everyone, but at the same time, he has his own priorities, which tend to lie skewed in favour of Noct being alive to be crowned king, but perhaps due to his upbringing - where Noct was his duty more than any friendships or ability to have an actual childhood - he finds it difficult to factor in peoples’ emotional needs, including his own.

So, in conclusion? Episode Ignis is the only side-story so far with an alternate ending because that’s Ignis’ planning mind at work, sizing up potential pros and cons of ‘what could work and what could go wrong’ with the two options he sees himself as having. While it can be and in some ways is an actual alternate timeline, it fits much better as a (partial at least) fabrication of Ignis’ own mind. It is biased because it is from Ignis’ perspective, and imperfect because it is touched with Ignis’ own priorities. 

In the end, Ignis looked at the possibility of what could happen, or at least the limited understanding he could have given that he didn't know all of the facts, and chose the outcome that he believed was the safer and more reliable for Noctis, as well as the rest of the world, which also explains why some of his actions and words in the alternate ending read as vaguely out of character to me; it’s because these are things that he chose not to do.

[leonawriter]

They’d talked about the possibility of Ardyn being there when the Imperial blockade was lifted; however, my reaction to seeing that the quest marker was a person was kinda... “It is! It’s him!!”

And a fiar bit of “I’d know that coat and stance and red hair anywhere! :D”