Thoughts on Gladiolus Amicitia

dreamiggy:

This post is a reaction to @ferix-writes‘s original post HERE. Please read it first it’s won’t make sense without it. I only made a separate post to be able to track responses better.

Hi there @ferix-writes​! Please let me start by saying that I don’t want to hate on Gladio at all. Yes, I was mad at him in the first playthrough because I felt like he was kicking Noctis when he was down anyways but now I understand his reactions much better. He really was doing what he though was best.

The point I want to make and on which I don’t agree with you is that Gladio is more well adjusted than the other three. From as much as we know about him (and really any of them) mostly the player’s preconceptions fill out the void left by the writing of the game (that is not bad writing at this point, there just simply wasn’t time to show how they grew up).

But back to the point: We don’t actually know how much more well adjusted he is. All the other points of the other’s traumas that you’ve brought up are valid. But at the same time we don’t know what happened to Gladio’s mother for example. What we do know is that he’s always been beside his father since early childhood in the Citadel. He always looked up to Clarus and with all his will and strength worked on becoming the Shield of the future King. You could say that while Ignis is absolutely dedicated to Noct’s person Gladio is just as dedicated to the family tradition of the Amicitias being Shields. Of course he gets to like Noct later on, but he’d already been training for years before he even got became the Prince’s friend.

That being said it brings me to what Gladio’s issue is and it might seem strange at first: feelings of inadequacy because of low self-esteem. There are so many traits of his that point towards this. He’s always looked up to the heroes that he got to see ever since his childhood (oh and I’ll come back to heroes later): his father, Cor, the King, hell probably even Drautos. They were all putting their whole lives into their work. Now if Clarus was just as dedicated to his position (as we see in Kingsglaive that he never leaves Regis’ side) then I can see how a young Gladio might have striven to gain his father’s approval by involving himself in his work so early on. Clarus was probably away because of his work a lot. Glaido could become more the part of his life by becoming the part of his job.

Then even in Brotherhood we see his confidence and even more so in the game his clearly false bravado that he takes even potentially life threatening situations on with. He always makes it seem like he is the one who is the no-nonsense member of the team but he takes ridiculous risks (like fighting Gilgames, fighting Ravus, going into an exploding reactor…etc) and leaves the others in potential harm’s way (like leaving them to go alone to Steyliff Grove) because of the way he tries to deal with not being the best and the strongest. In truth none of the four boys (them being so young and all of them living in the very isolated Insomnia) really know how to deal with the situations that are coming their way but somehow the four of them together pull through. Gladiolus is no exception he just puts on a brave attitude for it.

Yet even through all of this ultimately Gladio is a follower not a leader. All his life he’s been trying to live up to people like Cor who’s been called “Immortal” since his teenage years. And this is the point where it can be understood why is he acting the way he does towards Noctis. Gladio sees Prompto as someone to protect, arguably he sees (and he sees it very well) that Ignis can lead but his emotions can compromise his skills to decide (see: the entirety of Episode Ignis), but Noct…Noct he expects to be able to follow. He lost everyone else he could follow at this point and he expect Noctis to live up to the ideals of his childhood heroes that exist his head. He wants to see what he thinks Noctis has to be but not because he wants to be a bully but because that’s literally how he lived his whole life and dealt with everything. By following and looking up to someone.

Now of course Noctis is not in the emotional state most of the time to be the King™ in the game (and very understandably I might add) and this tips the balance of Gladio’s world. And this is where he reacts with aggression mostly towards Noct and once towards Prompto. He respects Ignis more than to openly go against him that way but he’s still berating him harshly for allowing Noctis to act childish.

I always said that this game is really great at showing how people deal with loss through the four boys. It’s really hard to deal with losing so much in a healthy way. That’s why between the four of them the four most typical reactions to such pressure can be seen. Noctis becomes depressed and distant. Prompto is swallowed by his anxiety. Ignis represses all his outward emotions. And Gladio is lashing out aggressively. Now out of all these four Gladio’s reaction is not one bit more or less healthier than the other but it is definitely more active and visible. And I think this is why it might rub a lot of people the wrong way. While the others internalise their emotions and let them eat away at them Gladio just lashes out. He knows he has to be strong like his ideals so he can’t let anything weaken him. He can’t turn his anger inwards. He just puts it out on the worst possible person. (Again this is something that is completely understandable and a human reaction because many times helpless anger is put out people who are the least deserving.)

All in all I believe that Gladio’s reaction fits the way all of them react perfectly. Out of the four of them neither are perfect or better than the other and somehow I feel like that’s the point of it all too. It’s just hard to understand the way Gladio acts because instinctively the players themselves will feel attacked too and react defensively. (How many times do we try to understand if someone acts in a way that’s offensive towards us in real life? Of course it’s easier to condemn Gladio that trying to understand him) This is why his Episode is just as important as the others’ emotionally as well. Maybe SE didn’t succeed ultimately with it but they tried to show how Gladio’s trying to deal with his feeling of inadequacy. (Just like in Episode Prompto we see Prom overcoming his anxiety. And how in Episode Ignis we see him expressing his emotions freely without repression). Gladio fits this pattern. He’s just as good and bad as the others but for many he’s harder to understand.

Thank you for reading through all of it. And of course because it’s just an opinion you’re welcome to disagree. This view however helped me to put the characters’ actions and reactions to their place in my mind and possibly see the intention of the writers behind it.