Terra: Let’s Have Matching Riku Cosplay For Tomorrow! Ven/Aqua: Sure! Next Day,

Noctis, impending death, and depression:

There are some things I want to address that I see people on twitter talking about a lot lately that are really frustrating me.

One thing I see over and over is about how “Noctis didn’t know he was going to die!” and “If he did, (if Luna and his father told him the truth, etc.) he would’ve shut down mentally!!” …. don’t you realize that he already has?

First of all, we have to address that Noctis is not a “normal boy” and will not react to things as a normal person. He is royalty, and that will always affect how he reacts to certain things no matter how much his father tried to get him to feel like he was just a normal kid. That’s another long, complicated post in and of itself so I’ll just leave it there. 

What people are forgetting is that Noctis absolutely knows he’s going to die. While it may not be the revelation of Bahamut, or even outright directly stated this is what he knows, even by the timeline of the 4th episode of Brotherhood that directly has him facing this, he knows he is doomed to die and so do his friends. That episode is actually one of the most important parts of Noctis’ characterization the development team gave us as far as I’m concerned.  

On the surface, that episode is about Noctis coming to terms with his father’s failing health and Ignis trying to settle into his more adult role of advisor. Okay, but why is Noctis’ father’s health failing? Because of the ring of the Lucii. Because of the very mark of being a Lucian king requiring his life-force in return for protecting his people. The Citadel interior that Noctis grew up in, is covered in sayings etched into gold and marble about their ‘martyr’ kings.(visible at the top of the 1st image) Noctis has known since as long as he could read, that he is not going to live a natural life or die of old age. While this isn’t the same as being told what Bahamut told him at the end, he has still had to live with not only the pain of watching his father breaking down and dying before his eyes, but with the fact that when his dad’s body gives out—he is next.

“He would shut down mentally!” – back to this

Yes. Seeing your entire retinue (caretakers and guards) murdered bloodily by a huge 2-story tall monster at the tender age of 7-8? Irrevocably traumatic. Knowing you’re going to die unnaturally, (before your time, etc.) traumatic. Most people do shut down mentally to some extent when they are given that kind of prognosis. 

Now go back to that 4th episode of Brotherhood and look at Noctis’ habits. Nothing makes me more furious, as someone who suffers from trauma and mental illness and understands firsthand—when people look at that episode and call Noctis a brat, or worse 'uwu oh boys are so messy.’ No. That is not the living space of a neurotypical person, spoiled rotten or not. He is barely functioning, barely able to keep up appearances enough to keep going to school while his mental health deteriorates. So that statement is both correct and not—any person would become unstable at the realization that they’re dying. The thing is… no one really noticed or tried to help Noctis with those things…. even though his friends obviously have the same information that he does. His obvious symptoms of mental illness were treated as a source of irritation and nothing more.  

I look at the state of Noctis’ apartment and the attention to detail in the animation always moves me. This is more of a personal analysis, but I hope it’s at least beneficial to someone. There is trash everywhere. That’s not normal, that’s not just 'haha messy teenager.’ That is a symptom that often accompanies the apathy and lethargy of severe depression. This episode moves me to tears nearly every time I watch it if only because it reminds me very keenly of a time in my own life before my family had been unwilling to get me treatment for my depression, when I could not function at all. I lived like this. I did not want to.But it happened anyway.. The thing that stands out to me the most is that there are countless convenience store bags, but they’re full—as if Noctis knew he needed to try to pick up after himself, but just couldn’t get past stuffing whatever debris was around him into the bag he’d brought it in with. I’ve been there. Later on, it’s stated in-game that he had a job as a part-time cook after high school, likely for life experience, or for the sake of being among the common people. It’s not that Noctis can’t cook. It’s that he doesn’t have the energy or the attention span not to scorch everything, which is more or less a key plot point of episode 4 of Brotherhood. While the others are frustrated with him for not functioning on their level, he is doing as much as he can. That’s the hardest thing with diseases like depression—you can be giving your all, and because it’s not the same as what a healthy person can do, you’ll always be called lazy and ineffective.  

To me more and more, Final Fantasy XV has become a metaphor for how much a person who is hurting and desperately trying to carry on like they’re not can become reticent and unable to express those feelings they’re keeping buried when they don’t get the proper help they need. It happens in real life all of the time: Noctis’ friends love him and want to help him—but they don’t know how.  

have YOU read the sleeping realm theory yet?? i did and i lost my mind

saw a stunning versace dress (x) that I thought would suit lady luna perfectly

I love Kingdom Hearts for all the “it makes sense in context (or maybe not even then)” things it lets me say, like:

The antagonist of the second game went up to a week-old kid and was like “join my cult!”

Clayton from Tarzan shot his shotgun at a teenager, with intent to kill.

In the first game, Sora stabs himself in the heart. This act, arguably, makes him the father of twins.

It is implied that Great Britain exists in at least three different planets.

It has been established that data and computer programs can also have hearts and personalities. An important character from a recent game is a character from an in-universe video game. He’s pretty explicitly not one of those data beings. Because fuck you.

The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella can apparently casually visit the afterlife whenever she wants, and bring at least two “guests” with her.

If you really think about it, the games kinda imply that Santa Claus (yes, the Santa Claus) either has a spaceship, a keyblade, or access to the powers of darkness.

The island the protagonists live on is surrounded by an ocean that apparently leads straight to the KH equivalent of Hell.

Story from the past, trailer from the past…

Daemon “keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth” Targaryen. (kind of a sequel to this) HOUSE OF THE DRAGON “The Lord of the Tides” (2022) dir. Geeta Vasant Patel.

Casually interrupting your feels.

EMMA D’ARCY as RHAENYRA TARGARYEN

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1.06 “THE PRINCESS AND THE QUEEN"

Noctis wanted to save Luna

had an epiphany tonight

in Luna’s death scene, Noctis says “All I wanted was to save you.” I thought for the longest time that that line was… sorta BS. He didn’t know she was going to die until she did, or he would have paid more attention to her during the Leviathan fight, or sent the Chocobros to guard her, or something. He had never really shown that saving Luna was an important goal to him during the game. All I saw was his mixed feelings for/disinterest in marrying her. I didn’t see him as having any real goals for himself aside from getting to Altissia for the wedding and short term things like carrot farming.

But then I realised, saving Luna was Noctis’s goal all along! But not in the way that is immediately obvious. All their lives, Luna has been living under the control of the Empire, and that must have weighed on Noctis as he wrote letters to her. I think that the reason he wanted to marry Luna yet was so seemingly unenthusiastic about it when questioned by Prompto is because he thought that by marrying Luna, he could save her from the clutches of the Empire. It wasn’t to save her literal life, it was to save her from a life of captivity. Of course her dying counts as him failing that mission, though, so that’s what makes “All I wanted was to save you” a true statement.

This is also why Noctis’s emotional state goes to shit after Altissia, not to mention gives relevant context for his argument with Gladio. He felt like he failed his biggest and most important goal, with drastic consequences. Probably the worst consequence he imagined was being unable to get Luna out of Altissia, not her straight up dying. And, I don’t think he had any other goals for himself. It’s the player who chooses where to go and what to do in the game, not Noctis - he just goes along with it…

I would bet that Noctis’s original, unstated plan for the first half of the game was to go to Altissia, marry Luna, and take her back to Lucis where it was “safe”. Of course, the fact that the Empire took over Insomnia is a bit of a wrench in the plan. I don’t know if Noctis mentally accounted for this. Maybe he thought that he and Luna had a better chance of reclaiming Lucis together.

This theory totally fits with my “Noctis wasn’t marrying Luna for love” theory, by the way. It was never about love, it was about responsibility, maybe heroism. So when Prompto was talking about Luna’s personal attributes as reasons Noctis should be excited to marry her, it meant nothing to him. Another reason he perhaps did not want to talk about the marriage is because he saw it as a rescue mission and thinking about it in light of Insomnia falling gave him anxiety. That’s also a weak justification, but it does add some depth to the way that Noctis is so avoidant to discussions of Luna and his upcoming wedding in the game.

“that’s not fair beast! don’t take it out on belle!”

— reasons why i love sora #8348 the beast was taking his anger out on belle and the second it looked like it was going to get physical, sora jumps in front of belle and protects her. donald and goofy are also in the room, but they still stayed in the back. sora’s a 15 year old child,  but still felt alarmed by the beast’s actions and had enough sense to realize that what beast was doing was wrong. even when belle felt like it was her fault and guilty about the situation: he tells her that she did nothing wrong, there’s no need for her to apologize. sora was so pissed off at the beast, not only for doubting a significant other and believing a complete stranger’s words over hers, but for taking his anger out on belle and potentially could’ve physically hurt her. sora wasn’t having any of the beast’s shit and damn this boy was raised right.