I still think the idea of the empire killing gods and screwing over the entire world in the process, only to get screwed over themselves by going all Umbrella Corp on their own people, is one of the boldest stories ever told in a Final Fantasy game. The main cast has it rough, too. Ignis going blind was unexpectedly very tragic, more so than you'd expect if you had read that bullet point in a spoiler. Noct's entire story arc is about coming to terms with his destiny, and he not only fails to save Luna, but never manages to come to terms with it. He wakes up ten years later to find out the bad guy essentially won, much of the world is dead, and he has to sacrifice himself to set things right again. The night before the final battle is essentially him being really broken about the whole affair and not wanting to go through with it. Then he dies.
I had an inkling the story would be dark in chapters 1-9, but it was more of a creeping feeling than anything else, like a bad premonition. I didn't expect it to be so consistently devastating from chapters 9-15. Even the big evil bad guy is tragic. He got screwed over in the past so badly that you can't really fully hate him.
Oh yeah, I also have to rage about that uh Ruvus guy? Luna's bro.
How he suddenly switched sides with zero context other than some stupid cutscene with Luna. I mean, he feels sorry for her at that point, but the Imperial literally sent everything to try and kill her in Kingsglaive.
So forced..
He was never really allied to the empire. In KG he wanted the ring (presumably to save Tenebrae or the world by himself) but it rejected him and burned off his arm instead. So he did the next best thing: take the King's glaive with the intention of giving it to the chosen ring bearer. I still don't know why he attacked the group in the base, though.