no more "i don't see your flaws". i do see your flaws and i'm telling you it doesn't matter and i love you anyway

1/3 Im sure u know who tis is but ain't ready for public to see who I am & unsure if this is good HC tbh 8D; I'm in mood for sweet ardyn turned cruel. I speak to u bc I love ur ardyn stuff 😂 so anyways. I had this in my own work in process for au too But then I was thinking. Feel free to add or disagree if ya want but can u imagine if ardyn wasn't just betrayed by izunia but by someone he loved and needed the most (or maybe they were same person)? Whether they're a sibling, spouse, friend, ect.

2/3 either way he loved em. So much. They were the closest to him. So when he became this daemon immortal and they abandoned him, he didn’t hate em right away. Why would he? They’ll come back. Long time passed about he was exiled or locked away. It’s so long later he hears they’ve “moved on” with their life and don’t attempt to reach him. Slowly but seriously, realizing they abandoned him for good, hatred settles in. They left him. It takes a bit but he eventually hates em and is angry. Tis why

3/3 he torture others (including Prompto) bc he thinks everything/one he has or meets or even creates bc he thinks it’s gonna betray em and/or he wants to take those dark desires out on em. Even if he met someone that wouldn’t do so or loved him he would just leave em be or torture em too 8D and if he met this person again (reincarnated or immortal) he would do anything in his power to let em suffer the way he suffered… 8D; if it’s dumb idea/HC feel free to delete I’m so sorry lol

Ooh a trio of excellent asks here! There’s a number of theories on who Izunia is and personally I like the ones where Izunia was someone who was close to him and meant something to him prior to the betrayal (in particular the hc that Izunia was his wife).

And when those he loved so much turned against him, initially, like you say, he would be very reluctant to truly believe it. He’d think that maybe this is all some horrible mistake and they’d come back eventually to treating him right. It’d be similar to someone suffering domestic abuse, well, in a way it IS domestic abuse. Like how someone in an abusive relationship might struggle to leave their partner despite the beatings they get, because that person they’re with *was* nice *once*, he’d keep hanging on to that hope. Often, people outside an abusive relationship wonder ‘why does that person not just leave? If it’s really that bad?’ But that’s part of the psychological issue with such things. You become mentally conditioned. And for someone like Ardyn, who spent his whole life being treated as some kind of demigod for his healing skills (remember the concept artwork of him parading through town Jesus-style on the black chocobo as per Palm Sunday), I’d warrant that he’s got enough of a background to make mental conditioning super easy for him. He’s already been treated most of his life like he’s someone else’s property. And I’d also say this gives him a very skewed view on what constitutes ‘ownership’.

Which brings me to your next asks. After his spirit is broken during his isolation (and @yourscientistfriend has a great post on what the effects of isolation are on the human psyche) his perception of boundaries would be all over the place. He’d likely have a lot of trouble accepting that people genuinely are nice or want to help, like you say, he’d be suspicious of everyone. So these issues play into how he lords it over others, how he plots and connives, and how he abuses others.

His abuse of others could also be a fucked-up expression of love. From his point of view, he cares about Noctis. He wants Noctis to succeed. And what does family do to family? Well, he’s got a rather skewed dataset of that. So it’s no surprise that he acts in such a way.

I also like the hc that Prompto looks similar to someone from his past. His actions towards Prompto (objectifying him by referring to him as ‘it’, putting him in stress positions that mirror those he was put in when he was crucified / murdered - again, see the concept artwork where he’s hanging, and even making Prompto kill his own family members (Verstael)) could either be a revenge thing, an expression of love, or catharsis for himself (making Prompto play his role). I personally HC the latter, but it could be any of these. Ardyn’s very complex.

Great asks! :)