synthetic-sleuth:

*Reposting because I clearly did not explain myself very well the first time!

This is specifically a post about Ravus’s journey.

I strongly believe these scenes, in particular, were included as an examination of Ravus, as well as a reminder. They are not so much a conflict between Ravus and Gladio or Ravus and Ignis, as they are a conflict between Ravus and Ravus in both.

The scene in the Stronghold is right after Noct received the Stormcaller’s blessing. When he says that Noctis knows nothing of the consequences, Ravus is filled with rage and hurt because the consequences are that it is literally killing Luna and Noct has no idea, or is not really seeing it for what it is (meaning not as close-up as Ravus has been watching her life diminish). Obviously, this is not the same as her having just been murdered by Ardyn, but he is not as calm and calculating there as people seem to think. He’s panicking already. That’s what spurred this fight. And the fact that Ardyn so conveniently appeared there in time to stop it from escalating was all part of the plan, too. He wanted to bring Ravus there knowing that he would snap on them. He wanted to use this as a way to strengthen the divide. Ardyn does nothing without reason. 

Which brings us to the next scene in Ep. Ignis. Although Ignis’s handling of Ravus there does draw attention to how well-trained Ignis had been, I really do believe these two scenes are not so much about comparing Ignis, Gladio, or Ravus’s strength, as it is highlighting Ravus’s own inner battle.

He’s dying to find a reason to live, so to speak. His last hope and the person he’d devoted every fiber of his being to ensuring her safety was gone and there was nothing left to live for. He wanted to give her the world, because she had become his whole world. He’d failed.

No world, no light, no hope, and everything he’d done had been for naught. With Noctis in front of him again, who’d survived where his sister had not… when she’d given so much her whole life and this was what she got in return? He was utterly shattered – furious at Noctis, at the rest of the world, at the Gods, at Ardyn, at himself. If Luna was not worthy of the world, of a bright future, no one was.

The fact that Ravus looks at Ignis as an equal (‘you’re resilient,’ AKA I respect you), Ignis’s actions toward Ravus, Ignis’s familiar devotion for Noct, and the speech Ignis gives him, are all a wake-up call. It’s Ignis giving him that reason. A reason to live, to make things right, to ensure the future his sister wanted to see could come to fruition.

And Ravus desperately wants there to be a reason. He wants there to be hope left. That is what I meant when I wrote: “Ravus didn’t really want to fight, and was conflicted enough with his own self that he was hoping to be stopped.” He wanted to see the world through Luna’s eyes and see that there was still a future to be had. And then, he decided that he would.

This was the moment Ignis convinced him that the world was still worth fighting for, and the circle is thus complete from the moment he met them in the Stronghold.

He felt again, and he stood up to Ardyn, and stood up to Emperor Aldercapt, proclaiming his belief in Noctis as the Chosen King who would save them all. Because even if he could never redeem himself or undo his past, he still wanted to help restore hope for others. It is as I wrote, “where a heart was too heavy to carry uphill, one must roll it to move on.” Indeed, Ravus would never be the same, much like the others, but he is now able to see that the path does not need to end there.