#(The Prince of Opposition) : Akechi

[princedetectives]

detective princes

[epitomees]

~ Takuto Maruki’s Tags ~

More will be added as necessary. 

[nightlilly0110]

There’s probably a million and one posts about Joker and Akechi being each other’s opposites or being the same once you get down to it (neglected kid, wanting to find recognition and purpose, etc.) but I’d like to talk about their views on food.

Akechi runs a food blog, as mentioned in Mementos Mission. He reviews places. Stuff like that, although while they do have a lot of fluff in them, are generally analytical in that it’s dissecting the food in regard to why it’s good and why you should try it. Considering the nature of it, it’s probably also meant to be an extension of his Detective Prince shtick, so whether or not he actually enjoys doing this is up in the air.

Then on the flip side, we have Joker who lives above a cafe. His guardian teaches him how to make coffee and curry, which he then can make as he pleases and serve to his friends. Like Akechi, you do get the prompts of what types of coffee are good or what ingredients go into curry to get specific flavours (much like a food blog would note), but unlike Akechi there’s a more personal connection to it as Sojiro teaches him.

Food in Persona 5 is a love language. Joker makes food for his friends. Sojiro makes Wakaba’s curry recipe for the shop and makes her favourite coffee on the anniversary of her death. The Thieves go out to celebrate a change of heart by having an outing. You both unlock Ryuji’s confidant and turn it into a blood oath while you’re out for food. Food literally heals you and regenerates your stamina in this game. Food is important.

Joker embraces the idea of food being important. The game takes time to educate you the player on little tidbits about the food he makes. It takes care into the segments you spend making Joker make food, again hitting you over the head with the fact that it’s important. So it’s kinda neat that you have Joker taking a very enthusiastic approach to food vs Akechi having a very sterile, clinical view of it - something meant for appearance and popularity only. Not bashing on food blogs, but in the context of the game, Akechi does not approach food in the same way Joker does. He’s distant from it, detached from it. We don’t have the sort of insight of Akechi that we do for Joker, but we can infer that he doesn’t have the same sense of emotional intelligence around it. And it fits his character, too. He’s had no one to take care of him in a long time and no one that depends on him. He doesn’t have a Sojiro to help teach him how to cook, and no one to share the benefits of it with.

I just find it interesting how even little details that aren’t even in the game add to how different these two are.

[corviiids]

hi rook sorrgy I'm back but I've been thinking about your akeshu as girls genderfuckery tweet for 20 million years. idk if you can share anything in good faith here on the Tumblr corner of the internet (if not then by all means ignore this) but if you did I'd owe you perhaps my entire soul!! thank you very much either way :3

i would LOVE to talk about this thank you so much for asking

[under the cut in case anyone would not like to see genderfuckery stuff]

okay so first of all.

on the topic of boobs

this is important to lead with do you understand. most of the akeshu as girls stuff ive seen around has akc as flat-chested and ren as boobed. and that's valid i support that. but personally. personally to me. i think it's the opposite. tbe reason (well one reason) i think it's the opposite is because i think girlren is a little rat of a creature and akechi who is prim and feminine and perfect is so FUCKING angry about her crush on ren like she's barely surviving it and then this is the nail in the coffin. she's like why can't i stop thinking about that messy unassuming thing. she doesn't even have boobs

my other reasons for tihs are that i think joker is more androgynous charm while akechi is more feminine/masculine duality i think this makes sense to nobody else. i think ren regardless of agab is riding the rail of the gender spectrum 🛹 while akc is collecting extremes of gender presentation like they're pokemon do you understand. are we on the same page here. ren being into drag is important to me for this reason (again regardless of agab). meanwhile akechi having very clear feminine secondary sex characteristics but presenting gradually more and more masculine in terms of clothing/hair/personal style etc. is also extremely important to me. and that includes being biog of tity while her style veers more and more into masc as time goes on

ok

the detective prince

i think girl akechi (at 17-18) presents very femininely because it's what's effective for her. i would call her style................... kawaii corporate chic. does that make sense for everyone. it's like schoolgirl girlboss. she has a bow instead of a tie but it's a very classy one not a kitschy one. smart blazer, uniform pleated skirt, patent leather shoes, u know the drill BUT. people still call her the detective prince. this is VERY IMPORTANT to me. no detective princess. only detective prince. do you understand the importance of the genderfuckery of a super feminine girl being called by masculine terms. to me. we're continuing the legacy set by my hero naoto shirogane bigender queeng. bigender kin. bigender genderneutral non-monarchical ruler

i think by third sem girl akechi is starting to dress more androgynously/masculinely. more pants. i think her third sem outfit is unchanged from canon. just a smart coat, sweater, buttondown, slacks. postcanon she gets a haircut.

just trying to live an honest student life

ren is like so fundamentallyuncomfortable with the fact of his existence at the beginning of canon so to me girlren is like... she dresses like she's trying to hide in her clothes. messy hair. i have no strong feelings about whetehr her hair should be long or short, or whether it's loose or pulled into a tail, but i know it's messsy. untamed curls. and she uses it to hide her face. none of her clothes fit. she's in oversized everything. i have a very clear image in my head of a ren idle animation where she leans down to pull up her leggings because they keep falling down. she also has terrible posture. she's androgynous at this stage not on purpose but because she's too self conscious to like... exist... and present... in any notable way at all

i think as she gets more confident and as the year progresses she starts to dress more distinctively. i like the idea of her getting more comfortable prettying up. maybe working at crossroads helps her with this 🤔 i dont know how to explain this but i think she's still feminine in a gentlemanly chivalrous way rather than a girly cute way. girlren has that same steady calming vibe that guy ren does

joker & crow

crow has a magical girl skirt. i have a drawing of this but im too self conscious about my own lack of drawing skill to show it off so i cropped out the key part and put it into an ms paint void in the distance as my visual aid

there. i hope this is illustrative

i think given girl akechi's use of her feminine charms to gain popularity, her hero complex would be similarly gendered given we have confirmation that robin hood represents not (only) heroics for altruistic reasons but also the theatre of being seen doing good. there's a real drama element to the idea of a magical girl transformation that i honestly wish we got for male crow too. i always am depressed that we don't get to see much theatre for akechi's initial appearance as crow and summoning of robin hood, anyway, girlcrow has ribbons and a capelet that flap in non-existent wind.

black mask's outfit is unchanged from canon. i'd like it to look a little less stupid but that has nothing to do with gender i just want it to look a little less stupid.

joker's outfit is also unchanged from canon. listen. im back on my bullshit. in the metaverse her behaviour gets more feminine and more sly and confident than in reality. she's got that femme fatale shit going on. however, she is still a gentleman thief. she has the long coat. she has the poofy trousers. she has the waistcoat. she's still smirking and fixing her gloves and flipping her knife and doing that thing that canon ren does where he lifts his chin and does the little "come on" thing with her fingers. do you understand? do you understand me

[persona-brainrot-real]

I know for a fact that if you make the decision not to accept Maruki’s offer, having given him the calling card, Akechi still goes to fight. I think he stands outside of the palace for a while, perhaps longer than he needed to while he waits for Joker and the rest of the PTs to show up, and I can imagine the bitterness and betrayal he feels realising not only has Joker chosen his life over everyone else’s, against his direct wishes, but intended on denying him his free will and his active choice in the decision. It’d be a betrayal he’d almost find hard to believe hurts him, but he did get close to Joker over the past month of working together, but the sting of realising Joker didn’t listen to him would probably be what encourages him to go, despite the risks, and fight Maruki alone.

And he would lose. He would have to- Maruki only loses because he’s outnumbered by several strong-willed people, all people he knows and respects (particularly Joker) but with Akechi? Just one opponent?

One moment he’d be stood opposite Maruki, teeth grit and hands fists, Loki looming behind him, and the next Akechi would be waking up in his Detective Prince outfit, back home, alive and whole and maybe for a moment he’d be upset, or enraged, or devastated, but only a moment before Maruki’s control over cognition wins and he can’t remember what he was unhappy about.

[cookiecomics]

I’mma preface this by saying I adore your writing, you are one of the best and most prolific writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading from. Also I am only on chapter 46 of ATOTT if anything upcoming might contradict my following statements.

I adore the Robin Hood sugar you’re providing in ATOTT. A lot of writers I’ve noticed favour Loki or oversimplify Robin and Loki as a Shoulder Angel Shoulder Devil situation. Some YT theorists outright disregard Robin as “fake” just because of Akechi’s hypocrisy and take the one line Morgana said in English about one being a Persona for Akechi’s hatred and the other for his lies at face value. Your interpretation is far more compelling.

Going off of the Jungian concept of Personas and Shadows that canon interprets (in which Personas are the masks we wear within certain contexts and Shadows being the “undesirable” parts of ourselves we hide beneath these Personas) my takeaway from your interpretation of Robin Hood and Loki is that Loki is a Persona like the rest of the Phantom Thieves have which reject the expectations placed upon them by polite society, hence why Akechi only wears the signature Black of the Phantom Thieves after summoning Loki rather than the largely white Prince costume.

Meanwhile Robin Hood as a Shadow would be the parts of Akechi that he hides specifically from his father. Shido WANTS Loki and the Call of Chaos. Shido WANTS the unfeeling monster he’s convinced himself his son to be, but Robin Hood represents Akechi’s capacity for love (hence why Robin always talks about Sae and Ren) and his desire for justice for people like himself and his mother. Akechi goes berserk with Loki in the engine room and goes on about how teammates and justice is bullshit because caring for those sorts of things is a weakness that would get him killed in Shido’s world, and he must hide or outright deny the existence of these parts of himself for survival. You can just SEE how Akechi turns away and clenches his fists in suppressed disgust when talking to Shido in canon. Loki and Robin are not simply made up of either “hatred” nor “lies”. Neither is one “good” while the other is “bad”, they just manifested from the multiple masks Akechi wears within different contexts not unlike a wildcard does. The two only appear to be opposites because their goals oftentimes conflict with each other.

Also if my theory that your decision of giving Shadow form Robin Hood glasses as a reference to both Clark Kent for the Superman allusion and Ren Amamiya whom Akechi canonically admires deep down for being “a person who sticks to their justice” I will go Nucking futs.

Thanks for reading my little ramble.

Anon, your ramble has shot through my heart <3 first of all thank you for reading ;3; you're too sweet and i hope you enjoy the rest of the chapters!

Funny you should say that because I specifically wanted neither Loki or Robin hood to be wholly one-dimensional. They're both protective and aspects of how Goro shows his love, both at his anger towards wanting to protect / avenge his loved ones and the capacity he has for nurturing and justice, that as you point out, he actively hides not only from his father but from others. He categorically -refuses- to let the thieves humanize him, unlike Ren, who is constantly pointing at him going -that's pookie-.

Ren sees the light that Goro desperately tries to hide from others, because categorically, Goro doesn't believe his good side means anything when in regard to how his actions should be viewed.

One of the reasons I had both Robin and Loki agree that Goro should sabotage Sumi (sorry Sumi) was to show that Robin isn't this wholly angel figure. At his core, he's still a thief, still a representative of Goro's ideas of justice. So having Robin being perfectly fine with stealing Sumi's man if it came to that was my little wink at that. I love Robin Hood dearly and I'm glad I got to show off how much deep down, Goro just wanted someone to love and care for, just as much as he wanted to be cared for ;3;

anyway thank u for letting me ramble about them ;3; hope u enjoy the rest of the chapters!

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

My favorite thing about Akechi is how determined he was to oppose Maruki all the way to the end. His and Sumi's third awakenings both exist in express opposition to Maruki and that means so much

Absolutely!! Akechi in the third semester is determined to finally live on his own terms as his own self. He was used and manipulated by Shido and he recognizes that and is done with it. He'll never be manipulated by anyone ever again. His one choice he made of his own free will was to save the Phantom Thieves and won't let that be taken from him. He refuses to live under false pretenses. He refuses to live as anyone but himself.

Akechi doesn't have a traditional redemption arc by any means, but his behavior in the third semester proves that he recognizes what led him down the wrong path and he's trying to change. He isn't going to let the opinions of others sway him ever again. He is his own self. Not the detective prince. Not Shido's puppet. Not anyone's puppet, not ever again.

He still has a long way to go, of course, and a long journey of self reflection and improvement if he really wants to become a better person who can love others and receive the love he's so desperate for, but this realization is what in my opinion allows him to live in Royal. He's finally found the strength to truly rebel against what was holding him down. He's finally able to decide for himself what true justice is.

And Sumire is the other side to Akechi's coin, the same and yet so different. She, like Akechi, is determined to live as herself after being turned into someone else's puppet. She, unlike Akechi, sympathizes with Maruki nonetheless and is grateful for what he did to her because it in a roundabout way proved to her that she was capable of living and moving on. She starts out willing to do exactly as Maruki wants and erase her identity, but she realizes through Joker's (and Akechi's) help that she doesn't want that anymore. She wants to be herself.

Because that's what Maruki's reality does--it erases any semblance of the self. Of individuality. It paints over the flaws and decisions of the person that are deemed imperfect. Maruki makes the choices, and Sumire and Akechi are incompatible with the reality he wants to create. The trauma that shaped them, that they overcame, will be erased, along with the lessons they have and still might learn from it. And both Sumire and Akechi decide they don't want that. They want to be who they are without apology. Even the ugly parts. Especially the ugly parts. And I think that's beautiful.

[chaoskalo]

@venstm cont.

you would think that akechi was above these type of tactics, that he only wanted to play fair. . . at least to the eyes that watched them ever so briefly. the opposite proved to be true though, at least when it came to competing against akira. he would never be satisfied with anything but winning against the wildcard, even when it came to something so trivial as darts. ( or then again, could was it simply being used as an excuse to kiss him? perhaps. ) in short, you could call akechi a sore loser as well.

" is it working? " akechi teases, gloved hand lingering on akira's cheek, and maybe he leans in closer to close the gap between them. this close, it's impossible to miss the small smirk on the other's lips. it almost makes him want to kiss him again, but genuinely this time. maybe he'd regret doing this in a time where there was other people present, but then again. . . did he care in this moment? not really. " you know . . . if you win, you could get another one. " he practically murmurs that comment in akira's ear, before abruptly pulling away from the other, the cherry on top to his plan. of course, akira winning is still unacceptable in the others mind, and he doesn't expect to actually have to follow the promise up.

as if to remind akira, and himself, of that fact, he picks up another dart and... bullseye. " ... good luck. " the tease is followed up with his fake detective prince smile, as if he believes he has gone too far. . . revealed too much of his real feelings, despite hiding behind the facade of winning the game.

[wellwrittenevilbitch]

Who is the better written evil bitch?

Propaganda

The lady bone demon:

she is so evil and i hate her so much. shes also awesome as hell and well written and i love her so much

Goro Akechi:

This "detective prince" from Persona 5 appears to be the perfect student and model citizen. His grades are incredible, he assists the police despite his young age, and his on camera presence is charismatic.

Then you start to learn his backstory. He was raised by his mother, and his father was never in the picture, but he knows who his father is and the father is a terrible person. His mother died and he was left to the foster care system, going from home to home. He had a very rough life, so it's all the more impressive what he's made of himself.

Then the reveal. His life really started turning around when he gained the power to enter the world of people's hearts. Using this power he could learn their secrets and then "solve" crimes they had committed. Or he could turn them berserk so they commit crimes in the first place. Or he could kill them, leaving no evidence of his involvement.

He joins forces with rising and corrupt politician Masayoshi Shido, using his powers to remove any of Shido's opposition and place Shido in better and better standing until Shido is poised to become Japan's next Prime Minister.

But he doesn't actually like Shido. No, he just wants Shido so high to make his fall that much worse, since Shido is his good for nothing father.

But along the way he meets the protagonist, Joker. He becomes jealous of the fact that Joker has friends and respect and people who love him even though Joker has a criminal record and is "trash that lives in an attic". And it's really too late to try to actually make friends with Joker, since two of Joker's closest friends and party members are orphaned because Akechi killed their parents. Not that he feels any remorse for that. Or anything he's done. But his jealousy does make it particularly fun for him when (he thinks) he kills a defenseless Joker in cold blood. The fact that Joker managed to trick him and escape doesn't help his jealousy issues.

He does end up working with Joker again, but now that the cat's out of the bag he spends that time openly relishing any time he gets to kill or hurt the monsters you encounter and shouting the most unhinged things during battle.

In summary, he's an unremorseful murderer with a sympathetic backstory who allows jealousy to drive him further off the deep end than he already was and his victims include some of the most important people in the lives of the protagonist's closest friends.

[marcyyne]

[ @unrealization | x ]

His expression soured. He didn't expect forgiveness. Hell, even understanding was less than he deserved. As far as he was concerned, Futaba Sakura was within her rights to take his life. After all, he knew better than anyone the weight of the hurt she carried.

He remembered his own mother. Her face. Even in her scant few memories of her alive, he could only remember her empty, dead eyes. Her bent neck. It was easier to pretend he had no mother. He was a creature born of his own spite. A demon with no mother who was never a child.

Shido's people pretended Ishiki had killed herself. A distortion, but an oddly chosen one. A mirror to Goro's own mother's fate. He wouldn't have done that. They had clearly hoped that her daughter would follow her in death, and yet here she was, standing before her mother's murderer.

"I have none. I did what I did knowing the consequences."

He had met Wakaba when she was alive. She was like him in a way. Just another one of Shido's victims. One of so, so many. In a way, he was like her, but in another he was just like Shido. Stepping on others to reach his goal. Like father, like son.

Futaba was not like him. She didn't have a power for killing like he did, and yet she stood before him. Looking him hard in the eye. She knew what he was capable of, and yet she didn't shy away at all. He couldn't help but smile. A chuckle escaped his lips. Maybe she was more like him than he thought. Shido had destroyed his mother and inadvertently created Goro Akechi, the instrument of his downfall. Maybe Futaba was that for Goro. He had forged her in the very same fires he'd used to burn her life down. Maybe she would be the one to take him down.

"Hold onto that feeling. That hate. It will keep you going."

He took a step toward her, halfway just to see if she'd shrink away from him. He reached into his coat pocket and took out his gun. The real one. He raised it, pointing at the ceiling. Just to let her see it. Then he turned it, holding it by the muzzle, offering the grip to her.

"Take it." He said, "Take your revenge. All I ask is that you wait until Shido is dealt with."

His expression darkened, any semblance of the mask of the detective prince melted away.

"Just be sure. You can't imagine what you'll become once you do it once."

➥ Futaba's mind had long since been muddied by dissociation and psychotic symptoms, but she wouldn't soon forget the guttural ache that came when those black-suits had told her the death of her mother—and all of the horrors that came after—was her fault. It might as well have been their hand, pushing their mother into the road. That was certainly what it felt like.

Now, years after the fact, it had found that it wasn't its hand at all. It was his. After all this torment, he lived on. She had wanted to take the life of who killed her mother, when it was, to her knowledge, her doing.

They were just as angry as they were towards themself, when their mother first died. Its jaw was tight after its initial outburst, holding some choice words behind it. She had tried, tried for too long to get past this feeling. Everyone else—save for Haru, though she hadn't talked to her about it before confronting Akechi—could stand by and get over their initial worries. Perhaps it was easier to let slide what Akechi had done when it wasn't your mother.

And they wanted to play along too, desperately. It had really tried, joking and working with him in a vague and futile attempt to pretend that this underlying rage was not building up in it. She felt perhaps a little lucky that it did not burst out the seams until the two of them were alone. They weren't exactly an emotionally intelligent person, but compared to Akechi, even their biting words were relatively stable in comparison to what he's done out of anger.

Unlike the murderer in front of her, hate was not her fuel. Quite the opposite: Hate like this was draining, had kept them locked in their room for a long, long time. This was the same feeling it had had for itself since the incident, and now it was directed towards him.

Perhaps she should have guessed that Akechi, of all people, would have had a gun on him. They took a large step away, not standing down, but not really interested in being in grabbing distance from someone so dangerous and armed. It was when the gun was instead being handed to it that its face finally dropped into shock.

"Cheese and rice." She uttered, barely audible, staring helplessly at the grip of the gun, then up to the other's face.

They knew better than to think he was joking, even in the slightest. Did it want him dead? Well, maybe a little. All of those years of wishing she were dead, maybe he deserved to feel the same. But...it was different, still. The idea of harming themself and harming another person were distant relatives at best.

Being a Phantom Thief had taught it that there were non-lethal ways out of these ruts. The Phantom Thieves had saved her from finding a lethal way out of her pain before. Doing what they wished they had done sooner to someone else was defeating the purpose of their calling card, was it not?

"... No. What I feel, what I want—It's not an apology, and it's not revenge. At least, not like this." It stepped farther away, closer to an exit, further from his offer. It wasn't one that she could consider, at least not now. "I just—Everyone else has been able to sympathize with you, and why you would possibly do what you did. But I—"

"I don't care. She didn't deserve that. I didn't deserve that." Futaba stamped their foot down at that. Defiant. Enraged.

"If killing you would make me anything like you, then I want none of it." All this time, it wasted away trying to be anything but the murderer it was sure it was. Now that she was finally innocent, she wasn't going to mess it up. Even if part of them knew it was deserved, they wouldn't risk what they had finally gotten for that revenge. Pain comes in many packages.

[justiceburst]

📖 + black mask/traitor haru au?? maybe they're working together or maybe akechi is completely uninvolved, i'd be super interested to see your take either way!

Send 📖 + an AU scenario to get a glance at what my muse would be like in that universe

ooh, this is interesting!

in canon, kunikazu okumura is one of the most frequent clients of shido's mental shutdown business, often requesting strategic shutdowns and rampages in his competitors so he can benefit without being directly tied to anything. but if he had his own metaverse assassin - for example, his daughter - he would be able to cut out the middle man. there are two pathways from here: either everything with akechi is mostly the same, or yaldabaoth chose haru as his distortion proxy instead.

scenario one: akechi is still shido's metaverse assassin and the detective prince, he's just a lot less busy without the dozens of okumura request lol. jokes aside, he and shido would definitely be aware of the presence of a second assassin in the metaverse - maybe they even know they work for okumura, if okumura got the idea from shido and made requests at the beginning before he figured out what was going on and that it would be cheaper to use haru. i don't really see a scenario where akechi and haru haven't run into each other in the metaverse or know each other's identities, and their relationship could be really interesting. maybe they're antagonistic. maybe they have a truce. maybe they team up to take down their fathers. shido would probably want akechi to kill her, and whether or not he would try would depend on how early on they met. eighteen-year-old akechi would obviously try to kill her without a second thought. fifteen- or sixteen-year-old akechi might be more willing to work with her to figure out an alternative.

scenario two: haru was chosen by yaldabaoth as the player opposite to joker in his game. this would mean akechi doesn't awaken to his powers on his own and therefore never contacts shido. he isn't the detective prince or the black mask here, he's just a kid in foster care with a lot of pain and hate but no power to change anything or take revenge. his personality would be very different, and he might end up genuinely joining the phantom thieves to change shido's heart, though that wouldn't be very satisfying for him since shido doesn't even know he exists and therefore can't acknowledge him. so much would change with this one, but those are just the initial ideas i had!

[epitomees]

okay I guess I have to be the Naoto enjoyer on main

do the ship bias meme for naoto

Send ‘Ship Bias’ and I will share up to 5 ships I have a bias for my muse!

Yu (Obvious is obvious. We have the senpai/kouhai relationship going on, we have two smart individuals in their respective fields/interests, and to be fair they'd make quite a power couple too. But also, Yu cooking for her and making sure she's fed well and giving her LOVE AND ATTENTION SHE HASN'T HAD IN YEARS!! I'm just saying but...they have my whole heart as my favorite P4 ship.)

2. Yosuke (Yet another grumpy x sunshine ship I will fight about! Yosuke always reminds me of bright summer days and the warmth of the sun, while Naoto gives off the cooler vibes of nighttime and the moon. It makes for great dynamics and fun that Naoto needs. She NEEDS to let loose and learn how to have some fun!! Yosuke is one of the perfect candidates for that! And...I think she'd smile more if he's around too.)

3. Joker (THIS IS INCREDIBLY SELF-INDULGENT, BUT....YOU KNOW...PHANTOM THIEF/DETECTIVE DYNAMIC!! I WANT THAT FOR HER SO BAD!! The confusion, the realizations that hit her, the embarrassed moments she shares with him, the high flying adventures, the thrill of the chase, LITERALLY ALL OF THAT!!)

4. Chie (Rarepair alert!! Thank you Liz for dragging me into this pit with you since it's something I never expected to like but I LOVE NOW!! This does have some of that grumpy x sunshine dynamic, but it's more like an opposites attract situation. Both of them are TOTALLY different in every way possibly, but somehow they can get along together. And then it develops into SOMETHING MORE AFTERWARDS!!)

5. Akechi (....alright....okay....it's yet another self indulgent ship....but you know....the two Detective Princes...working together and learning together and maybe starting their own business together and then growing closeeeeeer to each other...yeeeeeeeeeah ^_^')

[vashtijoy]

I'm slightly unwell about this one this morning, so I want to highlight something I skimmed past in the original post: the timing of this.

One of the most shocking elements of the 11/20 denouement is that gleeful phone call where Akechi proposes his murder plan. Like the murder itself, and that bakana onna!—"stupid bitch!"—mask-off moment, it is so striking in its contrast with the Akechi we're accustomed to that many people base their image of him on that moment alone.

Which is why it's so important, and so strange, that confidant 7 appears to take place after that phone call, within hours. Confidant 7, with all its hedging and uncertainty; all its "neither of us planned this, and yet here we are".

Confidant 7, where Joker fucking hands Akechi an escape valve for any misgivings he's having, telling him they're "worthy opponents". Because look at this: the two of them make an agreement here. Akechi tells Joker, "Remember what you decided, and don't run from it".

And Joker nods yes. He accepts, in full knowledge. "I don't need to be on your side, Akechi, you're my equal and opposite".

Joker, I think, hopes that Akechi will come to his senses, rather than go through with the murder. Remember when he's told he got sold out, right at the start?

Remember that little gasp he does? Why's he shocked, when he knew Akechi was going to stab him in the back? Because he hoped he wouldn't. He wanted to win him over. He wanted to save him—and we see how well that went.

As for Akechi—he doesn't know Joker knows everything, but he knows he knows some things—that one of them must inevitably take the other down. He still thinks it's a detective-vs-phantom-thief thing, I think, right to the wire on 11/20.; he always thinks his disguise is flawless. And at the same time, it's sometimes like he wants to be caught....

The PTs are supposed to disband after the palace, of course—but Akechi never quite acts as if that's the case, as we see here. Because he knows it's not the case. I think he knows Joker too well to believe he'd ever disband the PTs under pressure. So even in Detective Prince mode, there is still a future conflict on the table—and under cover of that future conflict, he's trying to make Joker complicit in his own murder.

something suggestive about balls: pool table proxy wars in akechi's confidant, rank 7

There's only one thing you really need to know about rank 7 of Akechi's confidant, and it is this: it happens on the day of the incriminating murder phone call.

We know this for several reasons:

It can't be locked for the name change ("family-name-kun" to "given name")—Akechi never calls Joker by name in conf 7. In fact, unless I miss my guess, he never calls Joker by name during the confidant at all, other than when you say hello in Kichijoji—probably because his term of address changes on 10/31;

Futaba will later tell us the call was recorded "a few days" after she bugged Akechi's phone on 10/29. From 10/29 to 11/2 is four days;

Given the importance of confidant 7, especially the rivalry discussion at the end, it's inconceivable that it happens before Joker hears the phone call. He goes there in full knowledge of what Akechi is, and what he intends.

Lastly, 11/2 can be summed up as "absolute chaos":

First, Akechi meets you on the train platform before school. He tells you he "won't be seeing you privately like this any more", once your deal is concluded—well, of course not, you'll be dead.

But this chat is so important that it appears to have two forms, unlike all the rest of Akechi's train platform appearances. One, the one I got in my playthrough, is quite gentle in tone. The other is much less so, much more dismissive, almost third semester in its bluntness. Assuming they're both in game, I'd guess the first is if you have the confidant levelled, and the second is if you don't. It's not legacy dialogue from vanilla P5; this scene looks to have been added for Royal. IDK, I don't know what triggers the two different chats, or if the other is even in game—but I'd like to.

If you haven't yet been to the hideout since 10/29, Morgana will force you to go after school. That's to say: you must have done Akechi's first hideout meeting, the first hideout of the Sae's Palace mission, by this date;

Last of all, Akechi texts you in the evening, for confidant 7 and its violent change in tone. "After all, losing doesn't sit well with either of us. Am I right?"

If 11/2 isn't the day of the phone call, I'll eat a nest of wasps.

boys and their toys

So. Joker walks into Penguin Sniper for confidant 7, in the a. full and b. very recently acquired knowledge that Akechi is a two-faced killer who's gleefully planning his murder. And what does he do?

Akechi has a lot of revealing things to say about balls in this scene, but we're not really here for him. Because look at how Joker is standing.

[screenshots below the cut, yo]

That's his usual "I have a pool cue" stance, with the cue held in front of him. Here he is doing it with the squad (plus one traitor):

See the difference? When he's with the others, Joker's facing the table—like you would at a billiard table, like Akechi is doing in the picture at the top. But in the confidant, when he's just learned exactly how malicious Akechi's intent is, Joker's not facing the table at all. Joker is facing Akechi. And that means he's keeping that cue firmly between them—whether as a shield or an impromptu weapon.

Now, like we said before, that's a standard pose—if Joker is holding a pool cue, he will hold it in that way. But it's the strange angle he's standing at, facing Akechi and not the pool table, that turns it into a message of sorts.

What happens next? Akechi leans down to take his shot, laying out his extended listen-I'm-going-to-murder-you-soon-and-I-haven't-fully-rationalised-it-yet metaphor all the while. Joker's eyes follow his to the table to watch. But he never turns to the table. He stays facing Akechi, and he still keeps the cue between the two of them:

The next thing is that you answer his question—"Hm, that sure sounds like a psychotic breakdown to me"—and Joker uses his hand to gesture....

... but then he gets the cue back between the two of them again, lickety-split:

The next thing that happens is that Akechi—probably deliberately, as part of his extended metaphor—misses his shot. The two of them pause to stare at the cue ball—in the Japanese text, Akechi has explicitly mentioned it as the ball you strike that starts everything unpredictably rolling. But Joker still keeps the cue between them, and still hasn't turned to the table:

(BTW, here's our old friend the sad sprite—there are some really interesting uses of it in this scene, that are worth watching out for.) But now we get to the point. "But even knowing all of that, you're still not going to quit, are you?"

Their eyes meet; the cue is still between them....

You can say "I've made up my mind" or "I won't miss my shot"; both mean, essentially, "fuck you"; both get the same result.

But now. Only now, as Joker goes to take that shot, does he finally turn to the table, exposing himself to Akechi. (coughs)

He nails it. And then they head out into the street to talk about rivalry. But take a look at their positions now:

Note that Akechi has not moved; only Joker has moved. But now the picture looks different. Now, it looks like Akechi is the one defending himself.

Joker has moved in and taken his shot, dropping his defence and opening himself up to attack in the process. Akechi hasn't moved or altered anything he was doing, yet now he's on the defensive.

And Joker's shot was successful, of course. Just like it will be on 11/20.

this is reaching, you should be ashamed

I see your point! Let's go back in time and have a look at confidant 2, for comparison. Here are the boys in happier times:

See? Joker is facing the table. Even though he's talking to Akechi, and looking at Akechi, he's turned to the table.

Here's another. This one's more dubious because of the angle, which means he does have the cue in front of him—but again, you can see Joker is pointed at the table, not at Akechi:

Funny you should say that, kid. Rank 7 Joker is on to you.

[akechigoroarchive398]

rank 6 - bathhouse

Akechi: Welcome home, Kurusu-kun. I hope you don’t mind that I’m intruding on your home again.

I expect we’ve both had a long day. 

I was out until now with work, but I think I finally can take a break…

You’re not planning on anything too strenuous tonight, are you?

> Not much.

Then perhaps we can talk over some of Boss’s coffee…

Sojiro: Not that I’m complaining, but if you two are so tired, maybe you could use a bath more than a coffee.

I mean, there’s a bathhouse right there.

Akechi: A bathhouse? That doesn’t sound too bad.

Want to come with me, Kurusu-kun? I’d appreciate it if you could show me the way.

> Hang out with him

Oh… really? 

If that’s the case, I suppose I’ll take you and Boss up on that suggestion.

---

Ahh, this feels wonderful… It’s been a while.

> A while, huh?

Years. I used to frequent one when I was younger. Of course, these days I’m the Detective Prince, but my family situation was… well, complicated.

By the time I was old enough to realise it, my father was already gone. My mother was all I had.

My mother worked at a nightclub. Whenever she had to bring a man home, she’d send me off to the local bathhouse.

> You’ve been through a lot.

It’s in the past. I have no reason to blame her either.

The only one who deserves blame is my father. The worthless, degenerate excuse for a man who abandoned my mother. 

I wanted to force him to finally give her the apology he owes her. But… that’s no longer possible.

Sorry. I didn’t mean for our conversation to get so depressing. Actually, are you all right? I know the hot water can make people dizzy…

> This is nothing.

I’m still good to go too. I feel like I’m barely starting to feel warmed up.

Oof… I think I feel a little lightheaded.

> Same. 

Haha, I thought so. Your face is bright red, you know. This is the first time I’ve ever taken a bath like this. I’ve never told anyone about my family situation, either. I wonder why I told you? Curious indeed.

> Because we’re similar.

Now that you mention it, maybe we are pretty similar deep down… we’re both victims of the adults who unfairly impacted our lives.

> I think you’re right.

I’m even more sure of that after having talked with you. Then again… this probably isn’t a conversation we should be having naked. Let’s get dressed, shall we?

— rank up—

My skin still feels like it’s radiating heat… next time, let’s keep the competition out of the bath. Best to save it for the baize (billiards), right?

…Though we could always see who changes faster. First to leave wins. Are you ready?

Well, see you later.

---

Hey. Between the delicious coffee and the bath, I finally managed to relax. So… thank you.

It’s nice to spend the day as Goro Akechi for once, rather than the Detective Prince. You know? I don’t know if it’s because of the whole Prince image, but everyone seems to think I’m some brilliant prodigy…

It’s really nothing like that. But people always seem to misunderstand. If they saw how I was acting today, perhaps they’d say I wasn’t acting like the Detective Prince.

> My bad, I guess.

Oh, I didn’t mean for that to sound negative… I’m sorry if I offended. If anything, I envy you. You fit right in with the retro vibe back there.

Honestly, though… I just can’t figure you out, no matter how I try. You and I have common ground in some aspects, but in others, we’re total opposites. It’s intriguing.

The more I get to know you, the more it makes me think. I wonder why that is. …Ah, now I’m veering into strange territory. I should let you go for now. See you.

[manias-wordcount]

as a fellow akechi lover, I literally live off of ur writing?? thank u for this fantastic fucking food??? if I may, could I request akechi with an s/o who is sweeter than sugar and extremely lovey? I've always wanted to know how he'd be with someone who's clearly the exact opposite of himself ^^;

Overwhelming  (Goro Akechi x Reader) 

𝗔/𝗡: 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗶 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿. 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀. 𝗶 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆

𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚? ⇒ 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩

𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙧?

It’s overwhelming.

When the doors close, you’re still smiling. When the cameras turn off, you’re still kind. When you’re alone in your room, you’re still you that he sees outside of it.

And it’s overwhelming.

Now, he lays here with you dozing off on his chest. You promised you wouldn’t fall asleep once you finally pulled him from behind his desk and onto the couch. But it’s only minutes into the hour-long documentary, and your breathing is starting to slow. Only minutes into the break you insisted he takes while you both wait for the takeout to arrive, and he knows he’ll be spending all these moments memorizing the feel of your heartbeat. Your steady heartbeat.

You’re real, and it’s hard imagining a world where you’re not.

His hands find their way under your shirt, resting comfortably at your waist as he traces tiny patterns into your skin. You’re not a secret to the world. The media knows your name. His fangirls know your school. His office knows your family. But he hates how they all know you. There’s a danger that follows him around. He knows it all too well. But not just from the fame. Not like you think, anyways. He signed his soul over to the devil when he agreed to work with Shido. And now his hands are stained red with blood he used to clean off purely for the sake of appearances. Now he looks at people and assures their safety with golden, closed-eye smiles. As if they couldn’t be next.

But that’s starting to change now that he has you. And it’s overwhelming. You’re overwhelming.

You’ll ask if he had eaten yet. If he needed you to fetch him some water. If he had gotten enough sleep. And he’ll answer you, trying not to let the mask slip, but it almost always does. But that’s okay. You’ll just give him the same smile you always give him, even in his dark ess. You’ll tell him that you understand that it must be tough being a prince. Tough being a hero. As if you’re not the one who’s saving him.

A tiny sound escapes your lips, and all of sudden, you’re shifting in his grasp. His train of thought is broken, and It’s by pure instinct alone that drives Goro into grabbing you tighter. Hands curl around your waist, his bare palm feeling the warm body on top of him, reminding him that you were still here. Still with him. His action makes you stop moving in an instant, this time letting a content sigh before tucking your head into the crook of his neck.

“Did I fall asleep?” Your voice is a quiet lull into his neck. He can feel the tiny puffs of breath escape your mouth. He can feel your soft lips brush against him as you talk. What did he do to ever deserve such intimacy? What did he do to ever deserve such intimacy that he just knows will be taken away from him? Somehow, some way. Like it always does. “Mmm, ‘m sorry Goro…”

“It’s only been a couple of minutes.” He finds himself answering back in a whisper. “You can go back to sleep if you want to, my dear. I’ll wake you up soon.”

The hum you let out is the only sign you heard him as you start growing silent once more. Not even twenty minutes have gone by since you tugged him away from the paperwork, and the mood he’s in has already shifted. He still recalls his own snarls as he sits in the dark of his apartment’s office, leading himself further and further down his path to hell. Cursing the existence of humanity and his idiot coworkers. Plotting the death of another nameless, faceless nobody in Shido’s grand scheme, just wondering when it’ll be his stupid father’s turn to look down the barrel of his gun.

Then a knock on the door sounds, and he doesn’t bother to put a smile on his face. Because he’s looking for an out when you let yourself in with a phone, the menu for the Chinese takeout place down the street, and that smile of yours that won over half of Tokyo. And you give it to him. You give that out to him. Just by saying that now would be a good time for him to take a break.

And now that he thinks about it, it’s a good time to fall in love with you too. As if he hasn’t already.

He wants to say that it’s something mysterious about you. Something that’s equally broken as him. Something that’s equally gray as him. But that’s just not true. You were raised to dot your i’s and to cross your t’s. You like bunnies and kitties and puppies and all things that make you look impossibly soft in such a dark world. You’re the first to apologize. The first to compliment too. You’re friendly with everyone you meet, and he swears up and down that you’ve never not known what it feels like to be loved. You’re charming in this sickly sweet way that practically rots inside of him. And it’s overwhelming.

It’s overwhelming knowing that he, as a monster, was never immune to you too.

Deep down inside, he wonders how long it’ll take until you’re ripped away from him. Maybe Shido will use you to keep him in check. He wasn’t too fond of Goro having you, to begin with, anyways. Or maybe, you’ll be swept away by that disgusting piece of attic trash. The stares always did linger whenever the leader of the phantom thieves lurked too close to you. Or maybe, just maybe…

You’ll walk away by yourself.

The very thought of it chokes him up. His breath stutters in his chest, and his heart starts to fill with dread. It’s a possibility. A very real, a very terrifying possibility. As much as he thinks you won’t turn away after seeing him lose his temper or yell, he knows that’s not true. Because he can curse. He can frown. He can furrow his eyes, and he can growl all because he’s in a bad mood. But that’s the Goro Akechi you know. The Goro Akechi you fell in love with. The Goro Akechi you cared for when no one else would. When no one else could. The Goro that was human.

But would you still love him? Would you still care for him if you saw the real him? No, he knows you wouldn’t. He wouldn’t want you to, anyway. He never deserved your touch. He never deserved your kisses, however shy or bold they may be. He never deserved you. But could you? Could you even look him in the eye after he told you what he really does behind closed doors?

Could you even stand to be in the same room as him if he ever told you just how many times he ignored the pleas of the ones he’d damned?

He turns his head, ever so slightly, and suddenly his nose is buried in your hair. He breathes you in, but he holds it. He holds every breath he takes of you because he knows he could lose you. And he knows that one day, he just might. You’re both just in high school. As you worry about what career you should study for, you hold stuffed animals that Goro got you and hope that you’ll find your way. But as he schedules time to study for college entrance exams, he has to fit in time to kill too.

You inspire him to be a better person. You do. You truly, honestly do. But that inspiration can only go so far when he has a job to do.

Now he has to settle for moments like these. Holding you close and holding you tight. Remember the curves of your body, and trying not to think about how perfectly you mold into his. Feeling your heartbeat. Your breath. Your warmth. You have everything you have to offer him, even as you’re off in dreamland with the light of some stupid documentary making it hard to hear your tiny little snores. It’s overwhelming. And somehow, that’s okay. Somehow, that’s perfect even.

And he thinks, it’s all because it’s you.

[vashtijoy]

All of this. I think it's also important to note that Light and Akechi are coming at their position from different points psychologically.

Light has a perfect image of himself which is shattered when he finds himself an accidental murderer. Akechi, on the other hand, has the opposite. He's been told all his life that he's the lowest of the low, and this has become pretty complicated by canon—because he's compensating.

Shido doesn't even have Light's momentary figleaf of "this is why I'm an unimaginable bastard". He just is one. He oozes power, privilege, wealth, and all the things Akechi believes should have been his right, that he was denied by Shido's denial of him. This is why the Prince outfit is like it is IMO, btw. Akechi would loathe Light.

I do think it's very difficult to watch 11/20 in the context of its surrounding scenes (rank 7, 11/16, the phone call in the corridor, 11/21, the unwanted child speech during Shido's Palace, rank 9) and think that day was uncomplicated for Akechi. I don't think he understands what's going on.

I think he's very glad to have "won", that he needs to have won; that killing Ren removed a lot of psychological tension for him after the first moments of shock. But it catches up with him fast, even before he gets up in the elevator to call Shido.

It's a bitter victory, and probably the final straw that makes him desperate to have it all over with, as we see in Shido's Palace.

I feel like when people compare Akechi to Light Yagami, they fundamentally misunderstand his character. Their similarities really end at their designs, and Light is the kind of person Akechi would despise. Light Yagami lives a pretty privileged life at the start of Death Note. He has a stable home, with two parents and a sister who care about him. He's a successful student. There isn't really inherent tragedy to his life. The whole reason he starts using the Death Note is a mix of curiosity and a jaded worldview, and when it works it empowers him, very quickly goes to his head, as he believes he is one who can be a god of a "new world" once the shock of his initial kills wears off. While his first kill was to help someone, that altruism didn't last. He is in charge of his choices, while Ryuk mostly vibes and maybe eggs him on a little. Fundamentally, Light has something Akechi lacks: agency, and a comfortable life he took for granted. Meanwhile, Akechi is someone who lived on the bottom rung of Japanese society. His very existence is shameful there, between his mother being a sex worker, his status as an illegitimate/"throw away" child, and his mother's suicide. Years languishing in a foster system that is notoriously inhumane, in a country where 90% of the adoptions are grown men for inheritance and patriarchal reasons, while very few children in the system find permanent homes. When Akechi awakens his power, he approaches Shido not because he wants to kill people but for a stupid revenge plan cooked up by a traumatized child who's been nudged along by a malevolent god. He wants to build Shido up so that at the height of his power, he can expose him for the monster he really is, while another part of him genuinely wants to be useful to Shido, as Cogkechi later calls out. His feelings are a mess of contradictions, and so it's no surprise that Shido was able to mold him into his assassin at only 15 years old. It's also worth noting that Akechi only approaches Shido with his ability to cause psychotic breakdowns. Shido is the one who teaches and instructs him to do shutdowns. He's still complicit, very sunk cost with his revenge plan, but as I spoke of here, even if he wanted to quit, he couldn't alone. Shido's cleaner and control of the law and ability to effortlessly turn him in would render the Metaverse his only safe haven. I think people look at 11/20 Akechi and Akechi in the early parts of the engine room and assume that's just his "true self," when in reality it's another mask. Royal makes it very clear because in Rank 7, he outright warns Joker of what's to come via a pool metaphor and offers an out (though he's MUCH happier if you don't take it/stick to your principles), and in Rank 8, he goes on that big "I hate you" speech... while Sunset Bridge is playing. Y'know, the song that plays at the end of most confidants to reaffirm bonds. So when he smiles as he shoots what he assumes to be Joker, that doesn't mean he's genuinely happy. More likely, he's an emotional clusterfuck, given he also is disoriented enough to namedrop "Shido-san" over the phone, and in the subsequent meeting with Shido, tells him not to kill the Phantom Thieves and that Morgana is "just a cat." Yes, he says they'll make them fear for the rest of their lives, but remember, he's talking to Shido. The things he says are likely all incredibly calculated to sound appealing to Shido. And when you consider that he planned to utterly destroy Shido's reputation after the election, the "delay" makes even more sense.

Later, Akechi goes on about how the people he induced shutdowns on were deserving of their fates, but I don't think he believes it so much as it's the only way he could convince himself that it was worth it, and given how much society failed him, and given how many of the people he targeted were likely rivals/competitors or rich fucks, I think he'd be less inclined to assume good faith. Kunikazu Okumura was not an innocent little victim, after all. He was one of the people who requested breakdowns and shutdowns the most. I think Akechi enjoyed killing him not because of how it'd hurt Haru, but because of catharsis. Because Okumura is just as monstrous as Shido, so why should he feel remorse? However, I don't believe he feels the same about Wakaba, as when he discusses her with Shido, he mentions how her fate was because she refused to willingly work for him. It's another justification, but I personally think Wakaba's death was the most painful for him because he was effectively making Futaba just like him. That's why I think his reaction to Sae threatening Sojiro's custody was genuine. Anyway, evil grinning Akechi is just another mask, as I said. Keep in mind, this is someone who laments not meeting Joker years ago, someone who Morgana outright points out is lying about his hatred. And that's the thing. Light Yagami, while a really fascinating character, is not someone who had all this childhood suffering or lack of agency. He does not regret his actions in the slightest and goes down due to his own hubris in both the anime and the manga. While you can argue that Ryuk set him up by dropping the Death Note, Light was the one who picked it up and chose to use it. Any nudging from Ryuk didn't coerce Light into doing it because Light seized the opportunity. No, if Light Yagami is like anyone in Persona 5, it's Masayoshi Shido, not Goro Akechi. Both believe they are god/god's chosen, that they are the ones who will reshape the world to their ideals, and to be frank, both use and abuse women to serve their own purposes. Goro Akechi goes down sacrificing himself for the Thieves and pleading with them to stop his father and again in Maruki's reality when he refuses to let Joker accept a gilded prison of a world for his sake when he knows better than anyone what it's like to have no true freedom. If you max his confidant, you see him in the postcredits, leaving his survival entirely possible, and I think it works because at the end of the day, Akechi was meant to be a victim and a foil. Light is a villain protagonist and a cautionary tale. Though its his POV we follow, he isn't someone we're meant to root for, but I definitely don't think enjoying the character is a bad thing at all. He's really interesting! I just think that a lot of the Akechi and Light comparisons are surface level at best.