As we all know, Ironclad made a deal with a demon (Vakuu, specifically) to gain great power, at the cost of losing control in combat and entering into a frenzied rage. When we confront the Architect as Ironclad, his speech seems to indicate that he is currently under the effects of that contract, only wanting to kill the enemy before him. This could suggest that, for the entirety of the game, Ironclad is completely controlled by his frenzy, and only marched forward, killing whatever crosses his path.
However, Ironclad is capable of intelligible, if furious, speech when he encounters Vakuu in the Spire. Additionally, there are numerous events where he doesn’t choose to simply attack whatever he finds. An example of this would be the event where you can cooperate with a group of adventurers. He also doesn’t attack any ancients (well, except Tanx in one line of dialogue, but he started it). This leads me to believe that he is not completely consumed by rage, at least not all the time.
One explanation is that Ironclad loses control when in combat, but calms down immediately after. This would seem consistent with how his story is told, with him realizing he’s slain his own clan after the battle ended. However I wonder why he speaks as if he is in a trance when encountering the architect. You could argue that he’s still in a combative state from the previous boss fight, or that he sees the Architect inherently as an enemy and begins to enter his rage again. However, he does not show this behavior against any of the ancients, including Vakuu, who is certainly his enemy, and Tanx, who can straight-up attack him.
My personal theory is that he loses more and more control over the course of the run, with Neow’s resurrection restoring him to a “normal” state each time he dies. After enduring the greatest challenges of Act 3, culminating in one of the toughest bosses in the Spire (or, two bosses? Is A10 canon?), he has lost it completely. In that way, he’s still capable of cooperation with the NPCs we meet along the way. This would mean he’s essentially locked into a loop of regaining and losing his senses over and over, which is sad to think about.
I’d love to hear all of your thoughts on this. I know I’m probably reading way too much into basic gameplay mechanics but the lore and flavor of this game is very interesting to me.