same perfectionist overcompensating, same low-key high-stress crew bro, binoclards, would burn reality and die for a clueless bozo they like, repression gays, subtly awful imperialist politics

(while rejecting all of the bad parts of it)

what makes both of them such good characters is like, they're presented as straight-laced, impeccably put together, logical, sensible, charming in a lofty, calculating way and yet the shit they are willing to put up with and go through bulldozes past all of that logic into "ok so actually they are completely unhinged SOMEWHERE under all that"

and i love that for both of them

absolutely!

now I am wondering who is the crazier one

I think we can both agree that Kim would absolutely use the ring of the Lucii to repel Ardyn if he had to

but would Ignis tolerate it if Noctis suddenly got really into disco? I'm not so sure

both have the theme where their "perfect" persona is this totally cultivated affectation as well

but in Kim's case it's a reaction to both the racism he had to endure, and to him being forced to spend a depressing amount of his life pretending to be a teenager

so he now wears a teenager's costume of adulthood

Ignis on the other hand comes to it out of pure overcompensation. he is genuinely a teenager wearing an adult costume

(well, a 23 year old's costume of a 35 year old)

Ignis has no reason to be like this. he is the crazier one.

ignis is absolutely the crazier one the boy is fucking blind after a certain point and still doing backflips

if their places were reversed, I think Kim would have made the same choices as Ignis but he'd have been more uncertain about it

if Ignis was put in Kim's place he would have been running on pure cold fire the whole time. he would have torn Revachol to pieces.