#ANYWAY all this to say I love the Answer. I love Yukari. I love characters who mess up and make it everyone’s problem

[ancient-day]

Every day I long for post-royal spin-offs for the opportunity to allow both Goro and Sumire to actually interact with the others without falsities or time-restricted threats preventing them from having much needed conversations and conflicts. I still wish we had at least gotten a second cafe scene with the Royal Trio where they could talk about how they actually feel about things like change and helping others. To see Goro try and brush it all off and maybe have Sumire call him out on it because his actions wouldn’t match his words, or even Sumire having to reevaluate her own answer since she was no longer under the influence of trying to be Kasumi and what it means if she still agrees with how she felt back then. Also I still love the potential humor with them ordering iced drinks in the winter this time while Akira has his hot beverage and him being able to call them both out for this. Love these funky little weirdos.

[p3ta]

gotta send Ryoji Mochizuki

Thanks for the ask! Hope your day's going well, fellow Ryoji enjoyer.

Spoilers below for P2, P3, P4, and P5R.

Send me one of these here!

First, I want to give some thoughts on his character as a whole. For the certain type of character he is (doomed, remorseful harbinger), Ryoji Mochizuki is perfect. I don't think there's a better Persona twist than his reveal as the the Appriser/Death, the thirteenth Arcana Shadow. Just because a twist is easy to see coming doesn't make it less impactful, and I particularly enjoy the way Persona 3 distills information to the player in allotments. Even knowing that, Ryoji managed to surprise me with how much more he was. And fittingly, a lot of Ryoji's characterization bounces back to the P3 Hero, and vice versa.

On top of that, Nyx Avatar is my favorite final boss in the entire Persona series and unsettled me out the first time. I'd still say that Nyx Avatar causes me more fear than the Reaper, who I'd comparatively describe as inciting panic rather than fear.

Ryoji is frequently compared to Kaworu from Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE), and, well. Yeah. I believe I read that in a developer interview that the P3 dev team deliberately took inspiration from NGE but I'm unable to find a source at hand, so don't quote me on that. Between the two, I prefer Ryoji. He is the strongest out of the character type for me.

favorite thing about them

His layers! Ryoji is one of those late game characters who comes in and recontextualizes all the information you've learned thus far. It's why I love watching the Dictionary update throughout a playthrough. I understand why people are put off by the way he's introduced as a serial flirt, but Reload made it much more textually clear that this isn't his true personality, nor his intentions. Ryoji is proto-Teddie (Japanese Teddie, anyway); a fully formed individual who sprang into existence seeking connection. However, where Teddie's isolation and lack of identity are his defining characteristics, Ryoji's are moored in how connected he is with P3 Hero.

Ryoji ultimately only exists because of that connection, that little bit of humanity he's been given, but that's also what prevents him from being fully human. He's had a role to play since his inception, and he can't avoid that even with his newfound connections.

Ryoji's present throughout the entire story. You've got Pharos at the very beginning with the contract running errands for the Velvet Room (I like it more and more that I think about it. Picture Elizabeth or Igor having to explain to this terrifying child what he has to say. Or maybe he knew what to say all along! He has been waiting ten years), Thanatos tearing himself out of Orpheus (by far the best Persona awakening in the series and a textual highlight for what an alien force he is), and a crucial lynchpin event for Yukari's backstory, Mitsuru's backstory, as well as the crucial event for Aigis and P3 Hero.

There is no version of Persona 3 without Ryoji and I'm all the happier for it. Genuinely, if something's confusing with P3's story, there's 90% chance the answer is Ryoji or one of his many numerous forms. The remaining 10% is the Kirijo Group. That said, we don't get a lot of time with Ryoji. Ultimately, he's a part of P3 Hero and you're left to extrapolate exactly how much of each other you believe they've influenced.

Sogabe, the P3 & P4 mangaka, chose to highlight how similar Ryoji and P3 Hero look. I consider it an essential element of their relationship together.

least favorite thing about them

It'd be cheating to say nothing, wouldn't it? I'd say that his design is easy to mock and hard to get right in fanart. Between Ryoji's forehead and very Axel Kingdom Hearts approach towards long limbs – and legs in specific – the movies did not help with this. I've read reviews saying how the higher budget allowed for the characters to be more consistently on model, and thus look better, but I fervently disagree. That boy is mostly leg. Late 00s and early 10s anime art Looked Like That, though. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a soft spot for some of it.

But I love how Ryoji looks and wouldn't change it for the world. Silly slick-backed hair boy. It is funny how whenever Persona wants a villain with sympathetic qualities, they slick back the protagonist's hair (Philemon and Maruki come to mind).

Reload fixed ("fixed") this anyway but making him much fluffier in his portraits and giving his skin some color! He's achingly soft in that game.

favorite line

There's many iconic ones I could pick but I'm going to go with a new one from Reload:

It's so small, it's so playful! I like that if you choose to start an exchange he finishes the bit. It says a lot about him in such a succinct way.

Even more so when you consider the reason he came here was for Junpei's sake. Being able to balance joking around while keeping a touch of concern endears me beyond belief. Thank you, Reload.

brOTP

Junpei & Ryoji. It's not even close. This was the one element I was hoping Reload would show more and I was not disappointed! The dynamic is good for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is that despite Junpei's Persona being Magician Arcana, he is not the P3 Hero's Magician Social Link. Junpei is not the male protagonist's best friend. He clearly wants to be, but his frustration is palpable. The P3 Hero is cool, charming, and everything that Junpei plays second fiddle to, but he won't even acknowledge him. But what if there were a more likeable version of the Hero?

Instant friendship. Those two are besties from day one, where Ryoji has all the qualities but none of the knowledge, and so their dynamic is a much more even one. To me, it indicates how well Junpei and the P3 Hero might have gotten along had he not carried Death inside him for ten years. It's a brief window into another world.

There's also the fact that Ryoji, Death, befriends Junpei so close to when Takaya shoots him and he perishes. His character arc is defined by change, this act being what radically transforms his soul, and what's one of the meanings of the Death Tarot? It's like universal foreshadowing. It's funny to me too that the Magician Arcana Shadow is the one Thanatos tore to pieces. Growth for Ryoji too.

As an aside, I miss the dynamic movements from the PS2 cutscenes. Junpei being so quick to drown Ryoji is nowhere comparable to him covering Ryoji's mouth.

OTP

Hmm. This might take a second. I wonder what pairing I might like with Ryoji. Here's an unrelated picture of Messiah:

You know, Messiah is one of those Personas that has only grown on me more as time passes. My favorite of the final protagonist ones, due in part to how you have to fuse him yourself. Orpheus, the starting Persona, combined with the power of Thanatos, the penultimate manifestation of the Death Arcana. They compliment each other beautifully, and regardless of if you the player create him, he is always the true final Persona, the final result of the Judgement Arcana.

They are inevitable.

Of course it's Ryoji and P3 Hero. How could it be anything else? These two make me sick with joy. Death has a clear favorite and in the end, gets to keep him forever.

nOTP

It's funny, because I can't think of any serious pairing with Ryoji that I wouldn't view as a crack ship? I can't see any version of Ryoji with anyone but the P3 Hero nor can I take that relationship seriously. The only other being Ryoji has an established relationship with is Aigis, and that ship comes across as black comedy. I mean, there's also Ryoji and the P3 Heroine, who he is undoubtedly head over heels for, but I see her as heavily preferring Aigis. Oops.

Wait, I did remember one! Ryoji and Junpei! I'll admit, maybe it's the sheer "dudebro" vibe of their relationship, but people pairing these two was not an outcome I expected from Reload. I've seen it enough to know those who like it aren't joking, either.

It's funny, because they're both soul-taken at the tail end of their friendship (Ryoji with P3 Hero and Junpei with Chidori) so I guess I wasn't looking for it? Then again I can't see Junpei Iori kissing a man in general. If there's a Ryoji pairing that isn't my thing, these two are the Most not my thing.

random headcanon

Ryoji memory backfill!

I've seen multiple interpretations for how Ryoji's sudden transfer, housing, and parental situations were never questioned. I like exploring this for myself, especially from Ryoji's perspective. Ryoji fully believes himself to be human until 12/2's Dark Hour. So, how does he reconcile his own situation?

This headcanon states that whenever Ryoji is prompted to answer on where he lives, what he likes, or where he went to school before, he'll often "backfill" what memories he think should be there. If it's something he should reasonably know, it'll be there.

In-game you can see a couple instances of Ryoji being stumped at simple questions, like where his class trip was going to be, but excelling at others, such as when he asks Mitsuru out to a restaurant date. According to the headcanon, he failed the class trip question because it wasn't something he anticipated, but he knew a date location because it was essential to his personality. Ryoji Mochizuki is a hearthrob, it wouldn't make sense if he didn't. So he does.

I like to think Reload Ryoji's phone is another example of this backfill, though this one spills over into material items. Ryoji thinks he should have a phone and knows he should ask for others' numbers, but when he reaches for it on his first day it isn't there.

His inconsistencies are fun.

Rapid fire small ones: his favorite color is blue, he likes sunrises but not sunsets, and he's good with children.

unpopular opinion

This may be the most unpopular opinion I have in general, but I don't believe Ryoji is bisexual. Or rather, I don't necessarily believe he must be bisexual. It's not like I'm trying to shirk representation, but I think there are so many fascinating ways that you can analyze orientation for a character. Same with gender.

Ryoji, through my interpretation, is someone who could only love the protagonist. And it doesn't have to be a sexual kind of love. There's an entire spectrum of identities in our culture that we've labeled for what Ryoji's experiences could be. It brings me joy to be able to think about how – even if Ryoji knew about these identities – he'd define himself. On top of that, would how he define himself be accurate? Would he have misunderstandings about his own identity?

There tends to be a large backlash when someone even suggests a different label for a character with one widely agreed upon, which means my gender and sexuality thoughts stay hidden away. I'm more than aware of those that insist any hint of same-sex attraction is obviously platonic and fans are reading too much into things. I'd never want to take away from an individual identifying with a character for what a fandom settles on calling them.

Though one note: it's interesting to me that from the collective opinion I've seen, people have latched onto bisexual as a label rather than pansexual despite them ostensibly meaning the same thing. Something something changing social climate. Anyway. Play around with character gender and sexuality. It's good for you.

song i associate with them

Auld Lang Syne.

For old acquaintance be forgot

And ne'er brought to mind

Should old acquaintance be forgot

In the days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We'll drink a cup of kindness yet

For the sake of auld lang syne

-

It's a traditional New Year's celebration song. Auld Lang Syne essentially means "for old time's sake". It originates from a precursor to Scottish, and exists as a fossil word inside this otherwise Standard English prose. I find it sweet how this little, historic piece gets to survive through something that redefines it.

favorite picture of them

Well, that was a lot. If you have a keen eye, you might've already noticed I've been dropping in pictures so I'll keep this part concise.

My favorite pictures of Ryoji are his portraits:

Sweet. Fluffy. Endlessly endeared by the way his hair flairs out. A much clearer heart shape for his face. Perfection. Special mention to his startled expression. His eyes get small and I get happy, simple as that.

Although, I'll never forgive Reload for dropping his Messiah pose:

There's an element to this portrait that's a little more unearthly, but earnest. Visually, his eyes are also a clearer parallel to Aigis's in this version.

Thank you for reading all the way through! And thank you again for the ask. I'm not sure if you were expecting an essay, but I think that about sums it up.

Have a picture of Ryoji nui + charm!

[aliliceswonderland]

The Answer differences - Keys discussion (Part 2)

You can find Part 1 here. I left it in the middle of Yukari and Akihiko's argument so that's where we start here.

So... There's a new dialogue in the Reload version that expands on Akihiko's point of view. I think it's kind of unneccesary, it just expands on what's already been said, and I don't think anyone ever had trouble understanding Aki's position or relating to him here, unlike with Yukari... It doesn't really matter, though. It doesn't make things worse either. The toning down continues. Omission of "You're just making excuses" makes Akihiko less confrontational. Interestingly, in Reload DLC Yukari rejects Akihiko's point of view (she already had a line on that track earlier too, see Part 1), while her silence in FES implies he hit the blank. Since the part about her feelings on MC's sacrifice was previously omitted, I wonder if they wanted to imply that she doesn't understand his sacrifice rather than that she understands it but still wants to go ahead with going to the past to see him, which is what happens in FES.

This is the point where things start to difer A LOT, so I have to stop doing line-by-line comparisons and think about a way to explain everything in a more or less orderly manner.

First at all, the sequence where Metis is explained that the main character died is gone. I don't know if maybe the Reload version told her in a different cutscene or if she just was left to deduce it for herself, but it's definitely not here.

Anyway, since Metis' pausing the discussion to ask in FES version, Junpei can start his reasoning pretty calmly. That's no longer the case in Reload's Episode Aigis, where Yukari is still angry from her discussion with Akihiko, and Junpei intervenes to try to scale the situation down. And fails, since she gets angrier.

Yukari repeats her argument here. She definitely sounds more logical and practical, even if she's still yelling. It's about taking a once in a lifetime chance, not as much about her own feelings. I do find a little disappointing that there's not much nuance in her take, though. She's basically repeating herself.

Back to side-by-side comparisons! This time, though, it's totally different text. But I think these pieces of dialogue are pointing to similar thought processes in Junpei's mind, so I think they are comparable. The line about Chidori is very, very interestingly missing in the Reload DLC. Kind of sad, given it's like... the only one point at which a party member other than Mitsuru expresses sympathy for Yukari's position. But when Atlus gives a decision to the player, they tend to let the result ambiguous, and this was the one exception... until now. Chidori's no longer canonically dead, but canonically in Schrödinger's box. It's equivalent in Reload is about the MC, of course. The reason I consider it doesn't express sympathy like the FES one, is because he says it without doubts. While FES!Junpei has doubts about Chidori, Reload!Junpei has fully accepted MC's dead, and therefore cannot see things the way she does. Although I kind of get this change (Junpei wouldn't care as much about his best friend as he did for the love of her life... Maybe. Go wild in the tags.), I think this is a bad choice when you'd want to make people understand Yukari. Because that sympathy is the way you'd do that without having to cut on her emotions and nuance. They're all in a similar situation, after all.

The second pair of lines is also interesting to me in that reflection upon Akihiko's words is totally bashed in favor of a "please, don't yell" thing that is not even a point. Why. I think they're trying to present Akihiko's point in a way that feels less objective? But was it needed when Junpei could see both sides here? Anyway, Junpei and Yukari's argument follows a similar structure as in FES for a while:

So, this is basically Junpei's main argument, which is that they'll have to battle Nyx again. Which Yukari answers by basically calling him a coward. The elimination of the comparison between Junpei's possible death and the MC's is significant. It shows Yukari hasn't fully accepted MC's death. But... no more nuanced feelings for Yukari, I guess. I don't completely understand why they switched Junpei's dialogue from a very compelling argument to basically nothing. They dumbed him down a lot. I think it's because they didn't know how to make Yukari respond to it rationally, but honestly it's very easy: "We can do it again, we've done it before!" Anyway, I'm not complaining about the toning down of Yukari in this particular scene, she really takes things too far here. In fact, she goes on in FES to insult Ken and Akihiko:

Instead, in Reload Ken interrupts the scene to ask Aigis what she thinks. FES doesn't do that until later, since Yukari suggests taking the keys by force now and Metis intervenes:

This is only a part of all of Metis' dialogue that was skipped, but the most significant part (I've reached the image limit... again... orz). Honestly, the point of "she might die since mc died and we don't know why" always sounded like BS to me, specially since Ken basically hit the bullseye with his interpretation of the events. Now I get why the previous Metis scene where she's explained the protagonist died is skipped. It's at that point when she arrives to this conclusion. I don't know, I think her becoming aware of a loved one's mortality is something that would add to the narrative, but I think this doesn't exactly accomplish that. You don't need to link the cause to the Journey's protagonist death. Aigis can die in battle! Also I think Metis still deserves to know. She could've had a little arc of herself about understanding what death entails and that would be part of what makes her realize it. Anyway, since I reached image limit again, I need to make a Part 3 now. Well, not now. Tomorrow.........

[lin-lizzie]

*cracks knuckles*

this was a detail i noticed a while ago when listening to and watching the persona 3 the weird masquerade version of brand new days however i was only watching the male mc version and it was grainy quality but at the very end the lights go dim and everyone does this weird gesture/motion with their hands, everyone doing it at a different pace, then it looks like they're sending it up into the air. now, i didnt watch p3twm HOWEVER i think it's based off p3p hopefully meaning the story is still pretty much the same aside the songs the cast sings (because i mean. its a stage version what else do u expect) and a few scenes probs but ANYWAYS lets also make note that in the game when everyone's persona awakens and they've resolved something in themselves and it appears as a weird little ball of light, im going to assume that that's what's being sent up into the air

okay, now back to p3twm im assuming the gesture/hand movement they're making resembles something, as everyone does it at a different pace and some people do NOT do it at all, what could this mean? i'm going to interpret it as when they've found a reason for life, i cannot say answer to life as only Aigis and the MC learn the answer to life and it isn't exactly shared to us and both of them only learn at the end of their games

everyone finds their reason differently, everyone has their different reasons. everyone finds it at different times, some later than others. im going to list from who does the gesture first to last (discluding mc) assuming it's who found their reasons first and who found theirs last, and some of their reasons if i can remember:

Aigis (protecting and staying by mc's side), Yukari, Fuuka. Junpei (theres probs another, but also for Chidori after she gave her life to him), akihiko (something about shinji i think), ken (also because of shinji), mitsuru, Chidori(? she isnt seen doing the full thing, however she brings both of her hands together and in the same way everyone else does. her will would be the love she found for junpei and yada yada)

and then the characters who do not do the full gesture (discluding chidori):

jin, takaya, and ryoji

now, I noticed when we zoom back out that Jin and Takaya dont exactly do anything until they send something into the air like everyone else, because i couldnt see what exactly they were doing though i went to search for another version which was the femc version now i know they both may not be the exact same however it is close enough and it actually stays zoomed out and you can see when everyone does the thing but anyways

jin and takaya use one hand, about a second after chidori they reach for something and pull to to them, but not like the others. its almost as if they keep it at a distance, but still keeping it close. they do however follow the others by sending it into the air.

ryoji however, does not do anything. that is until it's mc singing the final verse, his hand reaches up. i cant see what hes doing tho unfortunately smh

jin and takaya share similar ideals, albeit jin only does because he's loyal to takaya and such and such (ok idk how to word that but pls understand what i meannn), which leads to both of them not looking towards the future as they believe they do not have time and will die. which also leads them to wanting nyx to destroy the world and humanity.

ryoji is essentially death. he is the embodiment of it. that's why he doesn't do anything. however, he knows he will be at mc's side, bc yknow mc dies at the end becoming the great seal.

now, mc doing the hand gesture last may just be because he's singing the final verse however his is also different, he reaches out towards the audience/camera instead of sending it up. again, may be bc hes singing final, but it's still an interesting detail, as he is the one who finds the answer to life, and giving it up for the future of his friends.

i love this little detail. i dont think my interpretation is exactly right but boy is it still something that got me thinking. such a small detail too

[eleemosynecdoche]

yukari

Shoe Size:

I feel like whatever answer I put here would immediately become wrong if and when Yukari became aware of it. Gaps, you know.

Would She Step in and Handle It?

As we saw with Antinomy of Common Flowers, yes, if she absolutely has to.

I'm sure it's like flames on the side of her face if she didn't want to do it anyways.

Musical Taste:

I feel like Yukari has taken the SilvaGunner technique about as far as it can go without any sort of digital media, and also without dedicating massive amounts of time or a purpose-built shikigami to working out the arrangements of traditional songs in minor keys or having romance songs segue into some Nick Cave nonsense. Which is to say, the poor creature is assumed to have no discernible taste in music by anyone who hasn't figured her out yet.

Sex, Love, Romance, Worrying Girlthing Behavior:

So the Yukari Hellweb I have in my head starts pretty conventionally- you've got Yuyuko and Okina as contemporary partners, you've got Kasen as an ex who's still wrapped around her little finger, you've got Renko in both the distant past and the far future. You've got some unethical thoughts of two different modes towards Aya and Reimu (and Mokou as well for the latter), you've got the whole Ran situation, which is not a sex thing but is definitely Worrying Girlthing Behavior.

I'll maybe got a step further out and suggest Yukari's been intimate with Suika, Yuugi, and the fourth deva of Mt. Ooe, though casually rather than emotionally involving. I also think she's got some perverse controlling behavior going on with the Child of Miare and her relationships that meant that learning about Kosuzu had her dancing a hornpipe. And probably at least a few Hakurei shrine maidens have had some realllll awfulposting happen to them.

General Thoughts:

Poor creature (said without any pity)! I think Yukari as a character is absolutely delightful- fragile in existence but demanding nobody can ever know (except her pink-haired ghost gf and maybe the lifestyle RP hatefucking god gf). Someone who's "in control" because she doesn't try to assert control, the spider at the center of Gensokyo and all that. I have to wonder what she thinks about Hecatia's irregular presence...

[shuakepilled]

yukari is genuinely just soo well written I can literally go on and on about her she's just everything to me, while I haven't watched the answer but I do know some of the things she says, and you know it all ties down to grief and emotions, yukari is seen at the beginning of the game to be someone that doesn't showcase her deep troubles but she confides in the protagonist upon learning their similarities, yukari and the protagonist (whether it's makoto or kotone) have a great bond, because she finally finds someone she is connected to and someone who understands her, she even had a strained relationship with her mother ehich also brought alot of trouble in her mind even if she didn't want to admit it, yukari as a character had such a good development, it even showcases in her bonds with characters like mitsuru who she was not comfortable around but as time progressed she started to look up to her, the protagonist helped her open up alot more, and shes genuinely one of the strongest characters emotionally too, she was the one to snap mitsuru out of her troubles and she has always been such a good sister figure to ken too, there are minor moments in the game where she looks after him and cares for him deeply, it's rlly frustrating to see people hate on her because she's " mean" (god forbid girls have hobbies), she is more than that, she's one of the most well written characters along with aigis and I hate that no one talks about it! at the end of the day she's just a teenager that literally fought to save the world, plus she's literally the cutest and silliest lil thing ever???? I don't know how anyone can even hate the silly. anyways I love yukari sm I'm her biggest defender

[brookeginko]

Yukair 2, 7, 21 and 22 for the ask thing >:]

YAYYYYYYYY THANK YOU BAGEL YOU KNOW ME SO WELL

2: What’s your favorite canon thing about this character?

I love a most things about Yukari but if I had to pick just one I’d say it’s how realistically she’s written. In her romance route she admits to being jealous and upset when Fuuka hung around Makoto even though she knew it was an unreasonable thing to be upset over, and she says it makes her feel like a horrible person. Similarly in Yakushima she says something along the lines of “After everything that’s happen why does Mitsuru’s father get to live but not mine?” What I particularly like about this part of her character is that she knows what she’s saying is selfish and expresses it to Makoto with that knowledge in mind. She knows that but she can’t stop herself from feeling that way, and it’s so so natural for a girl her age who’s gone through everything she has that it just makes me ooiiiuuughhjjjggn /pos. I will always be a Yukari defender until I die and one of the main criticisms against her is that she’s ’too mean’ and while I obviously disagree with that one of my favorite parts of her is that she’s can be mean and say mean things but that’s because she’s 16 years old and has the fate of the world on her shoulders. I’d be a bit mean too. Rest in peace rank 5 hug scene i will always be your #1 defender.

#7: What’s something the fandom does with this character that you like?

OOH OKAY. I could go with the copout answer of everyone and their mother hcing her as a lesbian but outside the realm of sexuality hcs I like when people draw/write her as more toned and buff because like. Girl is an archer and running around Tartarus for an hour every night can’t be easy. I also like it when people give her archery more significance in general because canon gives us very very little to work with, especially compared to Akihiko ‘definitely doesn’t have a boxing special interest’ Sanada, so I like when people elaborate further on her time on the archery team since we know almost nothing about it.

21: If you’re a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

OOH YAYYY okay hm. Admittedly I haven’t written for Yukari as much as I would have liked to but for the 3 or so fics I’ve written about her and the rps I’ve done, I’d say my favorite thing to write is her self-aware jealousy. The line in her romance route about being jealous of Fuuka but it making her feel like a horrible person stuck out to me a lottt so I try to incorporate it in fics as much as I can. Especially in terms of ship fics I think she would be really really jealous of anyone she thinks could be interested in the person she’s interested in but she would feel awful about it and just kinda get caught in a loop of ‘oh no kotone is spending time with akihiko she’s probably crushing on him’ —> ‘oh my god im gonna kill akihiko senpai why is he taking up all of her time does he LIKE her?????? ew’ —> ‘wait no that sounds mean akihiko senpai is fine i guess. it’s not like i own Kotone’s time or anything that was a weird thing to think yukari’ —> ‘oh god im a horrible person Kotone wouldn’t want to spend time with me anyway’ —> gets text from Kotone asking if she wants to come beat up pedestrians with akihiko or something —> back to square one. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ve published any fics with this dynamic but I’ve rped it and have drafts and I just….. I love jealous Yukari so much. Runner up is when she’s protective and somewhat pushy about it. I’ve written this with Shuyuka before because Makoto has the self preservation instincts of a goldfish cracker and I find it very sweet. As for things I don’t like I worry sometimes that I make her a bit too mean to Junpei? Though that’s more of a general Junpei-bullying problem I have rather than a Yukari-specific one LMFAO

22: If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

Despite what my Bible length fanfics would suggest I actually don’t read a ton of fics so I’ll expand this a bit into the fandom in general. As stated above I really like when people make her more athletic but on the flip side I do enjoy when people make her the femmest lesbian to ever femme. I feel like in some situations people try to make femme characters more girlbossy and end up removing a lot of their femininity so I like fics and fanworks that make her a cool archer that also has seventeen dresses in the exact same color. For things I don’t like though, I don’t really like it when Yukari is made to be helpless? I understand that it’s like that in canon a few times (Awakening, Yakushima, something else im probably forgetting) but I feel like a lot of (cishet) shuyuka fans especially tend to make it into a hot yaoi base ‘gigachad door kun x little soft baby yukari’ and i just. comically large frown.

[petorahs]

i'm just gonna: ☀️ anon. There.

Anyway: I can see where you're coming from and like I said it has been forever since I played the Answer and I don't /hate/ it. But I guess I always had an issue with Yukari, because she seemed to me needlessly mean to others sometimes? Like she was right and others are wrong so its fine if she can be mean? But that is just what I /remember/. And while yeah, characters are allowed to be mean and not perfect and allways kind, especially female characters, because GOD FORBID women do anything- it also doesn't mean I have to LIKE her. I guess it's because to me Yukari felt like someone who would unironically call someone having fun "cringe", which for me personally is a dealbreaker. But Persona ALWAYS had this issue with having the male bestie be the buttmonkey of jokes, some kind of pervert and dunked on by the other characters and Junpei is still having it the best?? (Yosuke, Ryuji, you boys deserved so so much better).

In any case, I guess I couldnt give her as much leeway or credit because her personality didn't really mesh with me. But now being older I also think that it is BECAUSE of the writing. Persona Games have all extremely low points and extreme high points. The entire first palace is great in persona 5, Persona 4s social links with the Dojima family are really gripping and persona 3 is still one of my faves because it just came at the very right time in my life. (Who would've thought that a game about DEATH as its core theme would SAVE me.) But the writing is not always very consistent and the characters really suffer for it, usually for very stupid reasons like """""humor""""". I guess I am just trying to say that I get what you mean, but Yukari is just not my fave so I guess it is easier for me to lose patience. Like there are characters I'd go to war for in the persona series, so its easier for me to see the GOOD writing aspects, while others might greatly dislike them and therefore have a far easier time seeing the writing from more negative perspectives.

But your analysis has really given me some food for thought. I will definitely try to pay it more attention on a replay!

Oh ONE MORE THING!!!

It always felt like Yukari was pushed as a sort of "main love interest" which always kinda felt off to me when persona games do that. maybe its because i am gay and therefore see myself more representated by same sex couples/queer couples, maybe its because the persona developers believe men and women cant just be friends it always has to be something romantic, maybe its because the romantic writing always seemed forced and reliant on little events like in a romance shoujo manga- idk, but that was also something that rubbed me the wrong way. But that has been issues in P3-P5 throughout. And i feel like p3 got it the worst??? At least in later games you could opt for just a friendship even tho the writing still made it APPARENT THAT THE GIRLS ARE IN LOVE WITH YOU SPECIAL BOY!!! Sorry Yukari, that's not really your fault, thats a systemic fault.

yoo valid as hell though i get wym. if the character isnt for you then they arent for you and again, im not here to convince you otherwise of anything!

when you say it like that i can see why yukari's a bit of a mixed bag. i still like her tho she kinda a baddie and as a guy i like when girls are kinda mean to me so agree to disagree

ah yes the persona lovers arcana girl suffering from pushed "main love interest" syndrome.. i havent played any other aside from p3 and p5 but i heard rise gets worse. but like you said it is a systemic fault. to be real with you none of the romance options in p3 really enticed me despite 3 being hailed as ""the best dating sim"" out of all three modern games. maybe i just need to play portable. or be able to romance ryoji as makoto lmaoo (i saw a screenshot with ryoji saying he'd like you regardless of gender and. 😭 thanks for nothing i guess atlus?)

hard agree on the persona series as a whole having a tendency of doing something really good but then!!........ not. sticking the landing at all. theres so much to be said about it god these games are a hot mess on average its funny. as much as i adooore it, p3's pacing was so ass that i got severe tonal whiplash on oct 4. couldnt even begin to grieve cause i was so shocked

if you ever replay the answer (which. godspeed to you thats a whole grindfest i wouldnt wish on my worse enemy) i hope youre able to have fun and find new things about it to like! overall we can agree that its good so theres that. talk to you soon o7

[ragecndybars]

💥🚀💕🦋🦈👑💌 for the fic writer asks!!! <3

thank you dante my beloved for the ask!!! this was so fun to answer <3

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

Y'know, I usually talk about Persona 3, and I was sorely tempted to say that I would give the male protag social links with the male party members and Ryoji, but... I think if I could change one thing about the canon of any franchise, I would be much more likely to change the way Kanji and Naoto were both handled in Persona 4. If not making them canonically queer, then at least removing some of the more objectionable things from their portrayal (such as the way you have to force femininity on Naoto in both the main plot and especially the Social Link, and how the game chickened out from portraying Kanji as unambiguously MLM and yet still felt emboldened to make him the butt of a ton of homophobic jokes).

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

For long fics, I tend to create an extremely vague outline first, just so I get all my ideas out onto the page and don't forget where I was going with it. But, other than that, I pretty much write by the seat of my pants, lmao. This does mean that my fics have a tendency to really get away from me and morph into something completely different (my current WIP, for example, grew a mind of its own and is somehow already 14K words long, ahaha...) but that's half the fun.

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

aaaa, this is a tough one! I tend to be my own harshest critic, aha, so often scrolling through my fics just makes me cringe, buuuut... I think Miso Soup, a P3 sickfic which I posted recently but which has been in development for waaaay too long, is a very strong contender. Other than that, I'm honestly still proud of Oil, an EliHec Fire Emblem fic which... was also in development for waaaay too long, lmao.

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

Currently, I'm really obsessed with writing Shinjiro, because his voice is so distinctive and fun to play around with. He has such an informal, devil-may-care kind of attitude, and is the kind of guy who actually has a fair amount of emotional intelligence but just refuses to admit his feelings to himself anyway, so he's simultaneously easy to write for because he's observant and can pick up on a lot, and also difficult to write for because he can be a bit of an unreliable narrator. Other than that, I really like writing Aigis! I just love playing around with overly-formal and technical POVs for characters who pick up on lots of tiny details but might also miss significant elements of conversation and body language due to lacking cultural context <3

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Yukari and Ken are both very difficult for me, although I still have a lot of fun writing them when I can manage to get their voices down. They're hard for me for very similar reasons -- I feel like both of them are putting up facades throughout much of the narrative, not because they're trying to trick the rest of the cast or anything, but just because they don't feel fully at ease with everyone. Ken, for example, is definitely mature and intelligent, but we obviously know that he's always trying to appear mature and intelligent, and sometimes lies to do so (see: pretending not to care about Featherman). Meanwhile, Yukari isn't trying to appear mature so much as she's often distrustful of the other members of SEES (usually rightfully so lmao), so it can often feel like she's warily hiding her true thoughts. I love these aspects of their characters, don't get me wrong -- particularly in Yukari's case; I think the contrast between her hesitance around Mitsuru and her boldness in speaking her mind when she feels strongly is one of the best parts of many story cutscenes -- but it can make both of their perspectives a bit slippery to pin down.

👑 Do you like writing short fics or long fics?

Well, I tend to prefer oneshots or twoshots over chapter fics, but, when it comes to word count... 😅 my fics... really tend to get away from me. Every once in a while, I'll manage to keep it around 3-5K, but generally, most fics I post are more in the 6-9K range, which is almost always much longer than I expected them to be when I started them. (And sometimes they somehow turn into like 14K even though I SWEAR it was only gonna be 5K wtf--)

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

Angst, whump, and hurt/comfort are the obvious ones, but I guess those are more genres than tropes? When it comes to more specific tropes, I absolutely love writing severe injuries/illnesses/other afflictions which then dredge up emotional problems. Eg. a character gets injured, which makes the other characters realize how much they care about them, or a character gets sick and the other characters take care of them, which makes the sick character get overwhelmed because they realize that they're not used to being helped... stuff like that 😅

[obeymeshallwedate-latinplayer]

Latin MC.

My MC.

I know; “if I wanted to be reading about a MC I would rather read mine.”  Well I want to talk about her, because I want you all to meet her!

It's a tragedy that I can't draw her, because I suck at drawing!

Her name is Yukari, all my OCs will be named Yukari If you find my profile in Obey Me! We can be friends!!! Anyways. 

Her full name is Verónica Yukari Perez Aguilar, she was born the 22 of June, in Mexico (She´s from the center of the Republic) As a good Mexican and Latin American she has a BIG family, the 25% of her blood is indigenous. (Her grandfather is 100% indigenous) and she will always brag about it. 

Characteristics. 

Small really small. Her height is 1.45 (4.76 feet... enserio ¿Por qué no se conformaron con los centímetros?)  brown wavy hair, even thought she bleached and coloured it in red. She always use dresses and shirts with a whole in her back, she has a lot of tatoos and she olny has one in her spine, the pact with Beel. Of course when she made a pact with every demon her back became black because of the ink and pacts, she use a lot of black, dark lipstick and tons of eyeliner, but just for speciall events, Yukari is way to lazy to make her make up every single day.

Her first interaction with the devils was not even natural, they imagine the new exchange student was pure, but nope. Her whole family is good with magic and more than that, when she was young accidentaly call upon Belzebuub, they made a pact in exchange of food and horchata water, after that they kinda became good friends. She was (10 years old and she was bored). 

The “Kidnap” by the other hand... Her whole family went straight to the Devildom, they knew, if her daughter was missing she was in hell, and yes, there she was half naked, from the waist up, her tattoo artist way to afraid of saying something, her mama was about to murder Diavolo (He loved it because he already knew Yukari´s mother) cousins and her older brother protected her with an encantation that she broke when things became espesas. And she used the pact with Beel to show everyone how she was gonna be fine. After that she bought lunch for Beel and her family started to shout at her. “Pendeja, los demonios no son juguetes.” “DEJA EN PAZ A ESE DEMONIO YUKARI VERÓNICA PEREZ AGUILAR O YO TE PUTEO AQUÍ Y AHORA” 

Yukari: AMAAA DEJA LA CHANCLA NO, NOOOOOOOO EN LA ESPALDA NOOOOOOOOOOOOO AMAAAA MIS TATUAJESSS. 

Yukari´s mom: ¿¿Quien te manda pendeja?? 

After the putazos. The demons understood, they better don´t mess up with her family. 

Her relationship with the brothers. 

Lucifer.

He was surprised that Beel didn´t told him about his pact with a human, and he knew everything. After the show that Yukari put through, he decided that Mammon needed to stick around with her. 

He even went to her house for photos, books and action figures for her room. After that he saw Yukari in the big garden, planting cempasúchil, she even put in her door Papel picado she made an encantation with them so nobody could cross her door. He tried once when she wasn´t answering her D.D.D, he couldn´t.   He was amazed about her magic and power to talk, also she eats a lot for her small being, he has a Beel 2.0 but smaller. 

Mammon. 

He tried to sell the flowers in the garden, but Yukari nearly kill him, not on pourpose though, she put a protection for her flowers, and he crossed the protection, tha result was burns level two, that she cured. 

He is the only demon that like the saying says. “Entra como perro por su casa” it seems that after he burned up her encantations didn´t worked on him, so she needed to make better encantations and even protect her books. Once in a while she likes to cast a spell of truth in him so she can analyse his ways. The first time she spoke Spanish he knew he needed to create a bussiness with her. And her tattos are sick, he takes photos for her, he´s so in love with the art in her back. 

Levi. 

LOOOOOOOL She´s like that character from that anime, plus her hair is sick. He got another otaku by his side, for Yukari it was easy to make a pact with Levi, they became friends in a anime group so they kinda knew each other.

When Levi saw her magic he started to tell her how amazing she was, and how he can summon Lotan, and they totaly need to make a pact, she´s Henry, like in real live. For first time in his life he feels better with himself. 

He actually has a secret pasword with her door, so he can enter whenever he wants too, and laughs when his other brothers can´t even open the door. 

Satan. 

He was the opposite of his three older brothers, he needed to draw a line between that woman and himself, but when he saw how she could read difficult books and even summon other demons and even angels. 

Yukari: Ay Güerito I´m creating this potion so Asmo can´t flirt with me, I just want to see his face. 

She was evil, and he loved it, once he understood that she wasn´t a threat they became quite close.The cherry that was on top of the whole cake, was, Yukari was studying literature back in the human Realm, so yes, Satan made a pact with her, not as fast as Mammon or Levi, but if he was going to have a master, it needed to be her.

Asmo. 

For him, Yukari was cute, and the first impression was way to good for him. If anyone dares to see her body and thinks that she is not sensual, they are wrong, she just doesn´t like to show her atributtes, but damn, those Latin Americans were pure sensuality.  Omg, that type of clothes does match with her personality, she was evil and he loved it, needed more that a look. 

Bloking your door my dear? No problem I always have the key. (He doesn´t have it though)  His human is the best of all, even Solom can cry before her and she wouldn´t mind, his humans are great. 

Beel. 

Most protect my master, Beelzebub actually know her really good, he stayed in her life since she was 10 years old and they agree to make a pact. That means every familiar dinner he went, every birthday there he was, and after a break of each other, when he saw Yukari again he needed to hug and kiss her, she became a proper lady no longer a small child that summon him for cookies or for bullies. 

He got a crush in the 18 years old woman, and even if she doesn´t like him or she see him like a really old uncle that was okey for him. He knows that the flowers and potions that she makes can´t be eaten, so he always waits for her to give him a bite of her lunch or snacks. 

Beelphegor. 

When he tried to kill her in the other line of timpe she threw a flip flop in his head, and actually used her pacts, so Yukari 2.0 could have enough time to cast a spell, she summon an Archangel. It was impressive and the brothers were terrified, one human could summon anything was a danger. 

When she returned to her line she hugged Belphie and told him; If you try to kill me here, I will take your teared your head off, with one spell. After that they became such good friends, and she kept her secrete for eternity. 

With the undateables

Luke. 

Try to bully him and she will bite. She´s small so she hates with all her heart when the brothers are mean to him. Luke loves her, she´s like a big sister, and finally someone can face those devils. She even knows Michael, and when he speaks with him, Michael always tell him how impressed he was. Luke stook with Yukari every time he can, they also make sleepovers, and the curse in her door always give him a candy. He is the happiest Angel alive. 

Solomon. 

Worried, her magic is way to powerfull, he knows her type of magic, but, he can´t make it, that magic is from way far away in the humanity time line, and if she could summon one of the seven brothers when she was young, he didn´t knew how powerfull she was know. Ancient magic might stayed as a secret. He faced Yukari when she was angry, and damn, not even his magic helped him when he recived a Chanclazo.  

Simeon. 

He liked her, her apperiance was angelical, and her height was the cutest of them all, but he knew that even the Archangels had respect for that human, he saw her once in the  Realm, and he was shocked, she was nearly 14 years old, and was talking with Uriel like nothing. 

Diavolo. 

As powerful as a human might be, they have a time limit, he´s not that affraid of Yukari, he knows that she can handdle herself, and won´t start a rebelion Right? Even if she does that, he can always marry her and that would be all. 

Barbatos. 

He got atonished when she returned from the temporal line time, that wasn´t part of his plan, and she managed to break it. They became close, not only to know Yukari better but he needed to keep an eye on her, she wasn´t normal, she was playing with fire, but she didn´t get any burn of it.

LET´S LEARN SPANISH!

Chanclazo.  When a flip flop hit you

Güerito, This one is how should I say it? Kinda racist, means when a person has a white skin color and when he or she has a lighter hair. BUT in Mexico in the market, all people are güeritos, so dont worry. 

“Entra como perro por su casa”  He enters like a dog in his house

cempasúchil  A flower that means 1000 petals. And we use them for day of the deaths.

Papel picado Type of paper, that is use for our day of the deaths, in the ofrendas

“Pendeja, los demonios no son juguetes.” “DEJA EN PAZ A ESE DEMONIO YUKARI VERÓNICA PEREZ AGUILAR O YO TE PUTEO AQUÍ Y AHORA”: IDIOT, THE DEMONS AREN´T TOYS. LEAVE ALONE THAT DEMON YUKARI VERÓNICA PEREZ AGUILAR, OR I WILL KICK YOU HERE AND NOW. 

It´s very common that Latins owns 2 names and put the two last names of the two families, the whole name from a mother, means danger. 

 AMAAA DEJA LA CHANCLA NO, NOOOOOOOO EN LA ESPALDA NOOOOOOOOOOOOO AMAAAA MIS TATUAJESSS.

MOOOOOM LEAVE THE FLIP FLOP NO, NOOOOOOO, NO IN THE BACK, NOOOOOOOOOO MOOOOMMM MY TATOOS. 

¿¿Quien te manda pendeja??

Who leads you asshole?

horchata

Type of drink,without alcohol. It is usually made of rice, and it´s sweet. 

espesas : Thick. 

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

this is an outta nowhere question but what are your thoughts on Joker in Smash about a year since he was added? I've heard some folks say the reason the Persona fandom got so toxic is bc Smash got involved and I wanted to know what you thought since you've been in it way longer than P5 and Joker in Smash

Short answer: Yes AND No. 

Long answer (it’s me of course it’s gonna be under the cut due to length 8U):

I’mma be honest, there’s always toxic fans. I know Smash Fans (and Nintendo fans in general) haven’t exactly been peaches, esp when it comes to Twitter (which I think is also an issue atm). But there were toxic fans before than and there’ll be toxic fans later. It’s just life tbh. (dunno where to put this but I’ll put it here: Twitter nowadays is like 2012-2015ish Tumblr, different being Tumblr was a bit more hiveminded and if you disagreed with a popular fandom opinion you.....were kinda bullied let’s be honest so no one could really say their opinions. While Twitter now it’s not a hivemind but instead two sided extremist that you need to choose. Both toxic and similar but just a taaaaad bit different, I’d probs take the two extremist sides over the hivemind if I had to chose tho...even tho Tumblr had better content during that era than Twitter right now imo but that’s in general and not Persona only. 8U Tumblr’s REALLY calmed down since the porn ban I’m not gonna lie, and ironically that’s roughly around the time that Twitter started getting shitty. So like....kinda saying there’s a correlation, I think a lot of toxic tumblr people probably migrated to twitter, and while there’s toxic fans everywhere it feels like a lot gather on Twitter so it really highlights the fandom there sadly). 

From my experience (which is from P4 PS2 era onward, I missed the pre-P4 P3 PS2 era stuff but apparently there were waifu wars which from what I’ve found I probs would’ve just classified as “shipping war” stuff rather than waifu wars....and it seemed liked standard shipping war stuff from back then), the bigger a fandom grows the more fans it obviously attracts, but that also means more toxic fans too. And that’s why I say yes and no for the smash community, yes because they did attract more fans (and their community seems to be a bit toxic atm, like I get expressing your wants to a company and I support that! but the INSTANT you don’t get a specific character announced for the fighter pass and instead of just being like “oh golly darn :(” but instead “***** this place ***** Nintendo you all suck ****** *slur* *slur*” yeah no that’s a little....you gotta take a step back buddy, so yeah I’m sure there’s a bit more toxic fans in that fandom atm but they are also a BIG ASS FANDOM so I’m not surprised), but it’s also just the cause and effect of the fandom getting bigger in general.

It happened when P4 got it’s anime (btw anime fans ya still valid and are a Persona fan, just keep in mind if you wanna talk lore just know you did watch a very abridged version of the game so be aware you might have somethings wrong cause of that.....cause I’ve seen it happen.....DX btw let’s play watchers are also real Persona fans and I’d say even people who just like Joker in Smash are at least Joker fans and that’s ok too enough gate keeping guys DX), it happened when we started getting spinoffs, kinda with the P3 movies (only really cause FeMC fans were salty or P3 fans upset what was cut/changed, but it wasn’t on any toxic level tbh just normal complaints, I think the fact it was a movie instead of an anime bypassed newer fans than with P4/5 animes), it happened when P5 solidified it into the mainstream gaming market (I’ll stand by P4 helped break Persona into it via all the other avenues of mainstream, with P5 finally latching the main series into mainstream games.....I say mainstream cause spinoffs are looking the same as pre mainstream which.....>.> *shrugs* could be better imo), it happened with P5′s anime, and it happened with Smash Bros. And tbh I’m sure it happened or will happen with the Steam community (and Switch/Xbox if it ever goes there too) and P4G (P4 fans go through the same cycle of BS constantly, most of which I believe originated with the anime generation, that it’s hard to tell if there was an uptick or not). And it’ll probs get an uptick again with P6, and then P6′s anime. And maybe manga cause maybe P6 fans like the P5 fans and won’t listen when people say “don’t get attached to the manga name it’s probs not gonna be used so hold off till the anime” but hey let’s have drama for no reason cause we need it. 8U (obvie you can still like the manga name, it’s more for people complaining about name changes or not getting why Atlus just didn’t keep the manga name even tho an explanation is probs within arm’s reach and they were warned beforehand)

*sighs* Sorry back on topic, each time the fandom grows so will toxic fans. Tbh I feel like the phrase “toxic fans” are thrown around a lot. And it’s esp used for only....”haters” it feels like and I don’t think that’s right (cause it can be fans too), it just feels like ANY negativity (even constructive and kept reigned in by certain users) is viewed as that. Like take me, I’m sure I’m probs labeled as a “toxic fan” due to be being a Megaten/Persona fan but disliking P5 and talking shit/calling it out. But I try my damnedest to do that in the appropriate places (ie my personal blog, maybe a confessions place, or a thread/board that’s expressing negatives only OR it’s explaining/expressing pros and cons type of stuff, I find that to be the best because it keeps people who want to vent away from people who want to gush so no war happens, not saying I am perfect or you HAVE to follow this or you are toxic, it’s what I decided to ascribe to and find it works well and good enough and it gives me a better fandom experience). Aka, I don’t go on twitter to someone’s fanart of Yukari or Makoto and trash the character because I’m not a freaking asshole (or in this case a ~toxic fan~). But this also applies to the “fans” as well who will talk about something they like (character/game) but the ONLY  way they can raise it up is by tearing down something else (other character/game), it’s really rude and also toxic as well. Negativity is not inherently bad all the time, and Positivity is not inherently good all the time (with positivity it’s more of giving yourself a break from it rather than saying something positive can be bad at times, tho I’m sure there are times that-that has happened but it’s 2:30 am and I don’t want to think of an example for that). It’s how it’s used/expressed. I see the Twitter community trying to combat the “negativity” by trying to only spread “positivity” and I’m afraid 1) any negative expression, even constructive, will be scorned (I guess I’m afraid of us going back to a hivemind mentality again), but most importantly 2) the people trying to head it are going to be burned out and it’ll hurt them mentally (I do not want it to happen obvie, but I know personally it can wear you down which is why I’m concerned). Don’t get me wrong I love what they are doing/trying to do, but I think we’re generalizing the word “negativity” and “positivity” a bit too much and it’s just raising a few red flags for me (I’m just hoping I’m being paranoid/overanalyzing in this case). 

Uhhh there was one last thing I wanted to address.....Oh yeah gate keeping. I know you asked about Smash but this stuff is kinda related and hey think of it as a history lesson for the Persona fandom (or at least Nusona cause I didn’t have a game system in the 90s ;_; plus wee little me wouldn’t have been able to find P1/2 fandoms back then due to me not really using the internet like I do nowadays till around P3 was probs released). Plus you know how long winded I am so this is kinda what you sign up for, 3 am ramblings of overexplaining~! But gdi I will try to cover all the bases and get my point across in....some fashion. 8U

But yeah, Gatekeeping in relation to the Smash fans, cause I see Persona fans shit on new fans that got into Persona through Smash (I know above I said Joker fans are valid Joker fans rather than Persona fans, but I’m assuming they’ve yet to play/watch Persona and are just aware of Joker and are a fan of him vs the fans who saw Joker and then watch/played the games to get into the fandom. One set is a fan of a character vs the other set got into a franchise because of said character. Like I wouldn’t say I’m a FE fan cause I liked Marth/Roy in SSBM, which is why I have that distinction myself BUT if you wanna call yourself a Persona fan that’s valid, you’re valid, it’s whatever, I don’t really care about the details that much, I just have two categories for convenience). Anyway I don’t think it’s fair to shit on them. Same as I don’t think it’s fair to shit on anime only or manga only fans. Or if they got into the fandom through Nusona (Oldsona is P1/2, Nusona is P3-5 atm). Or Oldsona. Or another Megaten game. 

Maybe it’s cause I came from P4, where it got shit on cause it wasn’t (”dark”) like P3, it wasn’t (”dark”) like Oldsona, it wasn’t “dark” like other Megaten games, it got shit on every way to Sunday for daring to try to have a more lightened mood at times (3 murders happen, we see 3 dead bodies, a 6 yo dies onscreen, we have characters going through intense existential crises, we deal with characters mourning through death as well as other relatable struggles, basically shows our teammates die one by one in the final boss, having a chance to hear Naoto’s death scream on the phone if you don’t stop Adachi, just the “you didn’t save the person” phone calls in general, talks about society’s toxic gender roles and how it can negatively effect a person both to an extreme extent and minor, god forbid they eat an animal cracker to lighten the mood, and this isn’t counting the dark shit that happens in the spinoffs). As if P1/2/3 don’t have comedy, or any other Megaten game, all the demons are freaking weird of course there is comedy. Oh and it also got shit on for going mainstream first, and not even counting that it got shit on for spinoffs (which P3 was included but no P3 gets a pass for some reason), and the fact that it was shit on for not being P5 (before and a little while after P5 came out) because it wasn’t “dark” like P5 (fdksjafajkfljafj P5 has it’s moments, esp with Shiho, tho P4D did it first and went through with it, but seriously each game has it’s own light and dark moments and one isn’t better than the other only cause they have more of one than the other). And....*sigh* let’s just say thank god that I was able to buy other Megaten games right before the flood gates of shit came in, cause I dunno if I would’ve wanted to give it a chance if I had to hear my fav game shit on constantly. I say I dunno cause tbh I was craving more after P4 so badly I still would’ve probs gotten into it regardless of the fandom, I wanted more from the franchise even if it wasn’t 100% like P4. 

But tbh I don’t blame P5 fans, anime fans, or Smash fans for maybe not wanting to get into the rest of the series. I get old fans of whatever feeling like they are...I dunno being invaded? By new people in the fandom. Or their afraid of new fans not fully understanding the franchise (hey guys that’s where you teach people instead of try to passive aggressively try to get them to leave the fandom I dunno maybe make posts to educate instead of trying to push away??? 030). And change is hard and yeah. And maybe you don’t like the new game (keep in mind there’s a diff between saying “*insert* Sux” and “I don’t like *insert* because...” one’s shitting on something and the other is constructive), but hey shitting on the game they like is probs not gonna win them over to your fav game sflkdjafkjafja Educate and be helpful, don’t gatekeep and drive people away. That’s a sure fire way for us to lose this franchise (remember we almost lost Atlus all together, but it was able to get a 2nd life thanks to P4 saving it....tbh probably wouldn’t have ever gotten P5 nor SMTV nor any spinoffs if not for P4′s success with its game and anime, this is both a history lesson and a word of warning since it already almost happened once). 

Tldr; Smash didn’t help but it’s really just the fact the fandom got bigger and bigger fandom means we also end up getting more toxic fans mixed in. Twitter now is basically 2012-2015!Tumblr (diff is Tumblr’s was a hivemind vs Twitter’s now extremist two sides only thing), and Tumblr’s porn ban probably migrated a lot of their toxic fans to Twitter which probs hasn’t helped any fandoms on there. Negativity in general isn’t an issue, it’s if you’re being an outright asshole where it’s an issue. Don’t be an asshole in general, if you need to vent then vent where you need to, if you wanna gush then gush were you need to and without bringing anyone/anything down obvie. You are a Persona fan, regardless of where/how you started. Don’t gatekeep for the love of god, or so help me Jack Frost will sneak into your house and smack you in the face with a snowball (and if he doesn’t then I will.....jk...half jk 8U). Also *sprinkles of (allusions to? I dunno I tried it’s 3 am and my 2nd try on answering this and the first one was just as long) Silly’s Persona fandom history lessons throughout the post*

[lxversarcana]

thoughts on p3 go nuts

IM LATE BUT!!!

Okay so real shit it is the best of the modern games even if mechanics now are a little janky. It has the best party, the best music, and the best story. I love how the girls have the A Plot of the game surrounding Tartarus, I think it's very interesting and I really love that aspect of the game. I really love how Akihiko and Shinjiro specifically are so connected to a more emotional plot of the game with Ken, and I love how Shinjiro who's this big gruff dude is actually rlly gentle despite how he seems and cares SO MUCH. Speaking of, I love the seniors in general. Those three are so near and dear to my heart. They're honestly the better third year gang between them and P5s. THOUGH it is funny to imagine Goro hanging out with Makoto and Haru.

ANYWAYS. I think any persona fan who says they hate Yukari but like Junpei are hypocritical and also morons beyond saving. I also think people who hate Yukari are largely also morons beyond saving just in general because she's genuinely one of the most important characters in the game's plot. Also because a lot of what I have heard people say that they dislike about her are traits that would make a male character loved and woobified by the fandom. I'm sorry most Persona fans are idiots who can't read and hate angry girls, get better taste. I however, fucking love angry girls. The only thing I would change about Yukari is I wish her conflicts didn't feel like they were resolved so quickly and I wish her and Mitsuru more outright butt heads at first instead of Mitsuru just kinda taking it. I think it would have been interesting but also I do love a good rivals to lovers story. Cause they're girlfriends. Theyre fucking girlfriends. Im sorry to anyone who thinks Mitsuru would be with a man after her second awakening and also the Answer.

Some more major complaints are I think Ryoji just sucks. Like he sucks so bad. I think his reveal as Thanatos would have been more impactful if he had a personality outside of flirting with any girl he sees. I think Yukari should've decked him. I also think that despite it being a shorter play time than Persona 5, it drags on really hard in some parts? And at the same time I feel like skme plot threads could have had more of a focus than Junpei and Chidori. I think they were too focused on not gonna lie. Also! They could actually delve more into their Characters imo? We only find out about Mitsuru getting tested on as well as a kid in Persona Q apparently? Like if anyone should've been having interactions with Chidori, it should have been Mitsuru. Like I want to know what it was like for Mitsuru to have had a Persona for so long more than just what we got in her second awakening scene. WHICH was really good I have zero complaints about that scene. And speaking of personas, we never get to know how long Yukari has actually been awake in the dark hour? We just know she only awakened to Io recently. Personally, I like to think she's been awake the whole time like the protags, but awoke to her persona before them. Thats a whole nother can of worms though.

Anyways, those are all my thoughts for now. I'll prolly add onto them more at another time.

[merryfortune]

001. Precure in general. 002: HikaLala. 003: Himari Arisugawa? (not all of them, just what you would like to answer, if any at all)

PreCure in general

Favorite character: Emiru Aisaki

Least Favorite character: this is… highkey unfair and for no good reason but that Towa girl. I’m like 2 episodes away from the violinist princess getting redeemed in Go Princess PreCure but I stan Yui so hard that in my eyes, Towa is the reason that Yui isn’t able to become the Princess of Music & Art

5 Favourite ships (canon or non-canon): Emiru/Lulu, Haruka/Kirara, Hikaru/Lala, Nozomi/Coco, Haruka/Close but there are more but these ones with the most interesting story or dynamic

Character I find most attractive: don’t at @ me but I think Close (and Shut) are both gorgeous as all hell (I like thots apparently)

Character I would marry:

Character I would be best friends with: Emiru!!!!!!!!!!

A random thought: where is all the fic ;w;

An unpopular opinion: I really liked how the Homare has a crush on Harry plot was handled. Maybe it’s because I remember/was in Homare’s position once (16/17 year old me was hot for teacher lol), I really liked how she found closure for herself without having to confess her feelings. I dislike how vehemently fandom will deny that this plotline even took place because I think young girls, who will develop crushes on unattainable/older men, need to be shown stories of how to handle those feelings without placing themselves in danger of being preyed on.

My canon OTP: Akira/Yukari (look, if the dub had to ungay them, that must make them canon)

Non-canon OTP: gonna give this to Ichika/Himari because I shipped them before Emiru was introduced I’m p sure so they get seniority privileges

Most badass character:

Pairing I am not a fan of: tbh I think I can give most precure ships a chance but I did see some Smile PreCure ships where I’m ehhh on. I only like Nao/Reika from that set. all the others should stick to being friends.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I think this goes without saying but Hana. Saaya, and Homare got super screwed over by Hugtto having a lot of Emiru/Lulu subplots. Also, Yui. She should have gone PreCure.

Favourite friendship: I mostly read said friendship as romantic but Emiru and Lulu……… they’re best friends oh my god

HikaLala

when or if I started shipping it: hmmmm middle of episode 1; definitely cemented by the end of episode 2 lol

my thoughts: I wrote a meta on them so I have a lot which mostly boils down to a lot of great symbolism between them gives them subtextual evidences, they hold hands a lot canonically so that’s cute, and it’s just a great ship

What makes me happy about them: Hikaru gets an alien girlfriend aND ITS FANTASTIC

What makes me sad about them: the Hikoboshi and Orihime parallels between them heavily implies that sometime in the future, they will separate and they will only have miniscules chances of continually/regularly seeing each other thereafter ;v;

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: me, who owns a lot of property in the hikalala fanfic tag on ao3, jack and shit, babe!

Things I look for in fanfic: anything which accentuates Lala’s alien-ness

My kinks: look… Lala can generate electricity…. that gives a lot of stimulation play scenarios but mostly… nah

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I like these ships a lot - Hikaru/Yuni, Lala/Yuni, and Lala/Madoka

My happily ever after for them: they go off traipsing the universe, exploring. Hikaru takes after her father and writes a book on her travels whilst Lala uses the information to update the Saman Planet AI because I’d love to see a plot twist where the AI isn’t quite as benevolent as Lala trusts it is so she takes it upon herself to remedy it (using the Rainbow Planet Tragedy as a catalyst for said goal or as foreshadowing towards it)

Himari Arisugawa

How I feel about this character: I was expecting to fall totally head over heels in love with either Aoi or Yukari since their animal motifs are both feline and I’m a major cat person but instead, Himari managed to steal my heart before either of them got the chance. I super relate to her and see a lot of myself and some of my struggles (particularly in social situations) in her. so yeah. I love my squirrel daughter.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Ichika

My non-romantic OTP for this character: no one in canon springs to mind…  which brings to mind something else… so this is out of the left-field but I had a dream once where Spectre met all the KiraKira PreCure A La Mode girls but it was Himari whom he bonded the most with in said dream (kind of “I’ve only had Himari for five minutes but if anything happened to her, I’d kill everyone in this room and then myself” type situation or maybe its more comparable to the reaction image of the samurai dude (spectre) with the cat (himari)). anyway long story short, her and spectre because if one favourite character makes me happy then two makes me even happier.

My unpopular opinion about this character: she is the best girl of KiraKira PreCure A La Mode.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: can’t remember if this happens or not but I swear KiraKira forgot at some point that the girls gained animal characteristics (so, in Himari’s case, her superspeed) so I would have liked to see that explored more. also in a kind of Tokyo Mew Mew twist, I would have liked to see Himari (and by extension, all the girls) deal with their new animal natures in their civilian forms too… like, this might be too lore heavy for PreCure but I would have liked to see Himari (and I guess this applies to all the girls) deal with becoming “part fairy” (just like Pekorin and Ciel had to deal with becoming part human). TLDR: more Squirrel characteristics from Himari, please!!! because I am a furry!!!!

My OTP: Ichika/Himari

My OT3: i don’t have any but if I was at gunpoint, the options I suppose I could live with are Rio/Ichika/Himari (gee, Ichika, who let you have a girlfriend AND a boyfriend) or Aoi/Himari/Ichika because apparently Aoi/Himari is a semi-popular ship???

[memoriesofyourdread]

001 Persona 3 FES/Portable :3 just started playing this!! I’m curious what you think!

Oooh, my favorite Persona games~ P3 makes me sad but also so happy? It’s a good sad.

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Shinji, no question. He fits my character type so well, there’s absolutely no question who my favorite would be.

Least Favorite character: I mean, the answer over all would probably be Takaya, but if we’re going off just S.E.E.S., it’s Ken, though he’s growing on me...a bit.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): AkiShinji,YukaMitsu, AigisHam, AkiShinjiHam, AkiShinjiMitsu

Character I find most attractive: Hmm... I mean, Persona games are kinda bi thirst traps? But also I guess I’ll go by aesthetically pleasing. Mitsuru?

Character I would marry: ...you know, the rest of them are pretty dumb teens, and I’m not much for marrying anyways? But Ms. Toriumi would be a riot, I think. There’s an unpopular opinion, probably.

Character I would be best friends with: I think I’d love to be best friends with Yukari? We’d probably get along sometimes because clothes are great then butt heads other times.

A random thought: Look, there are so many S.E.E.S brotps that don’t happen because of the senpai-kouhai dynamic, and I want them to stop. Because Yukari would get along so well with her senpai, dammit.

An unpopular opinion: Yukari is perfect, and her flaws make her human, so stop thinking less of her for it. She grows, and it’s wonderful.

My canon OTP: ...okay, in my playthrough, MinatoYuko, because Yuko is best girl that’s not in S.E.E.S. Fight me.

Non-canon OTP: AkiShinji, always, but pffft, it’s canon, shut up, Atlus.

Most badass character: That’s so hard! Like Shinji’s super badass because just gonna headbutt idiots, but then have you seen the ladies of S.E.E.S.? Mitsuru, like damn. And their kouhai are no slouches either! Not to mention Aigis!

Pairing I am not a fan of: ...AkiMitsu? But that’s only on their own because on their own, I don’t think they have the balance they need to keep up a romantic relationship.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): P3 has a good balance for the characters, tbh. If this had been just characters the canon has screwed over, I’d say Minako-Hamuko-Kotone, since she doesn’t appear in P3D, and she doesn’t get HER team in PQ2. She needs more love outside of P3P. (However, pretty much all of the social link girls in FES. Rank 10 for all of them is nonsense and pandering to dudes in a really icky way.)

Favorite friendship: AkiShinji, most definitely. They have such an interesting dynamic, and I love it so much.

[disneydreamlights]

For the controversial ship meme - ALL symbols for Persona, Kingdom Hearts, and Hatoful Boyfriend.

You really out here wanting me to die tonight for my opinions.

Persona:

Ship that you have as an OTP: 🌹

SHUAKE FOR LIFE. God I love Shuake. Enemies to lovers in general just gives me life but the fact that Akechi and Akira were made to be foils to each other is just good shit.

Ship that you’re indifferent to: 😑

Honestly most Phantom Thief shipping I’m pretty ambivalent to, but if I had to pick the one I’m like...truly the embodiment of “meh” about I’d probably say Ann/Akira. I don’t love it or hate it, it just kinda exists.

Ship that makes you sad: 💔

God I’ve got two: Akiham and Fool Moon. You want depression? Great, take these ships and run with it. And if you thought the fact that Shinji dying made Fool Moon depressing, how about the fact that if you romance Aki you can’t save Shinji, so he’s lost his parents, his sister, his absolute best friend in the entire world, and now you too.

...Akihiko deserved better.

Ship that you find disgusting: 💩

KEN/MINAKO CAN GO DIE IN A HOLE BYE.

Ship that you find cute but don’t ship: ✌

I don’t really ship it but of the female confidants and Akira, ShuMako is definitely the cutest.

Ship that you secretly like: 💚

I will never own up to this again but Ann/Ryuji actually lowkey is kinda cute, and while I’m not super into it I’d definitely get behind it.

Ship that you used to have as an OTP: 💙

None really? For me to dump a ship at OTP status you gotta cataclysmically fail as bad as Lotura and have a fanbase worse than some KH ships.

Ship that you find most sexy:👅

I got held up on this for like ten minutes because I’ve never actually thought of this in regards to Persona...I guess probably Shuake? All my other ships I see as sexually incompetent to some degree. 

Ship that you can never see happening: 👎

Any of the kid/adult ships. Also Futaba/Akira, the two are practically like adoptive siblings and that’s just weird.

Ship that is canon but you don’t ship: 💤

n/a. The only canon ship in Persona is Junpei/Chidori and that’s...good.

Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘

...Honestly Ann/Ryuji I’m pretty sure is unpopular. Also anything P3 because the fandom is too quiet.

Ship that is taboo: 💦

Shuake? I can see this ship being classified as taboo given I had to leave a server over hate for it.

Ship that pisses you off: 💣

...Ken/Minako please fuck off.

Ship you’re curious about: 👀

I would love to see more of MakoHaru, it’s got a lot of potential but not a lot of attention and that’s a real shame.

Ship that needs more love: 💖

Every one of my P3 ships. Give Akiham more love, give Fool Moon more love, give Mitsuru/Yukari more love. Give Junpei/Chidori more love.

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢

Shuake is misunderstood even by its fans because too many of its fans white knight Akechi and erase his wrong doings when half of the interesting things from the ship come from Akechi growing from everything he did wrong and that’s the tea.

Kingdom Hearts:

Ship that you have as an OTP: 🌹

I always crossfire my OTPs but I guess if I had to pick one to top all of them it would probably be RikuShi? Hard to say.

Ship that you’re indifferent to: 😑

Tequa. I want to like Tequa, I really do. I just can’t bring myself to care about it that much, and that saddens me.

Ship that makes you sad: 💔

Hey canon SoKai absolutely broke my heart, crushed my dreams, destroyed my soul, and I want to cry.

Ship that you find disgusting: 💩

I sat here for like an hour because I genuinely wanted to avoid naming the ship and in the end I decided I’m tied between Ak*R*ku and Ak*Shi. The age gap plus the fact that Axel feels more like their dad just makes me uncomfortable, that being said if the arts good I’m still gonna reblog.

Ship that you find cute but don’t ship: ✌

There are a lot of good high crack combinations out there like Sora/Ariel, Sora/Rapunzel. I also admire R*kuShi from a distance but the fanbase kinda turned me off pretty bad given the ship wars between them and RokuNami.

Ship that you secretly like: 💚

Terra/Cinderella is a ship I will never talk about shipping but it’s actually genuinely really cute and I blame Talia for making me ship it.

Ship that you used to have as an OTP: 💙

Once upon a time back in 2018 I was a huge S*RiK*i shipper. Then KH3 came out and well...

The behavior of some people has kinda turned me off big time from a specific third of the ship and if you don’t like all three parts then what’s the point of OT3ing.

Ship that you find most sexy:👅

Vanqua. Which I feel weird saying but you know what, that would one hundred percent be it. The rest of my ships completely lack sex appeal but Vanqua has Aqua in it and she’s literally the most attractive character in KH.

Ship that you can never see happening: 👎

Well of my own ships...Vanqua, but of the other ships...

You know what, for my own safety, I’d rather not say.

Ship that is canon but you don’t ship: 💤

Well I ship the canon and implicated canon ships so...

Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘

GULAVA HAS THREE SHIPPERS AND YOU KNOW WHAT I WILL PROUDLY BE ALL OF THEM.

Ship that is taboo: 💦

Vanqua. Big taboo here.

Ship that pisses you off: 💣

...

...

...

Look.

I don’t want to die Perla.

You already know my answer and why.

You know how much I hate that one theory and hate the fandom’s attitude and it’s made me legitimately angry over a ship.

I think you know the answer.

Ship you’re curious about: 👀

Aquarella looks real cute. So does NamiXi but not enough content.

Ship that needs more love: 💖

RokuNami needs more love, the ship’s fallen into quietness, but also my eternally rare pairs of GulAva and RikuShi and Vanqua and XehaEra need more content and deserve to be fed.

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢

VANQUA

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST GUYS THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH AN AGE GAP BETWEEN A SIXTEEN AND EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD STOP PORTRAYING IT AS GROSS THERE ARE UNDERSTANDABLE REASONS TO CALL VANQUA BAD AND A REASON I WOULD NEVER WANT IT CANON BUT THE AGE GAP DIFFERENCE IS NOT IT.

Hatoful Boyfriend:

Ship that you have as an OTP: 🌹

My oc x Yuuya because Zoe and I rped that and it’s one of my top ships period. Sakuya/Ryouta is honestly a very good ship and 10/10 would ship again.

Ship that you’re indifferent to: 😑

Honestly most ships? There’s just not a lot of birdie combinations I’m super into in general.

Ship that makes you sad: 💔

Hiyoko/Ryouta is particularly tragic, even if I’m not a shipper of it, once you take into account BBL.

Ship that you find disgusting: 💩

Yuuya/Sakuya

Fuck off with that incest.

Ship that you find cute but don’t ship: ✌

I’m not super big into Anghel/Nageki but it’s real cute anyways, just not enough canon substantiating it.

Ship that you secretly like: 💚

N/A. Don’t really had any of my Hatoful ships.

Ship that you used to have as an OTP: 💙

None? Same deal as P5 there was no fuckery in the fanbase to turn me off. It’s a nice chill fanbase over here.

Ship that you find most sexy:👅

...They’re birds.

Ship that you can never see happening: 👎

Shuu/Yuuya. I know there are people who ship it and no.

Ship that is canon but you don’t ship: 💤

N/A. No canon ships.

Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘

...I’m not involved in the fandom enough for this tbh.

Ship that is taboo: 💦

None I’m interested in tbh.

Ship that pisses you off: 💣

PEOPLE WHO SHIP EITHER SETS OF BROTHERS. JUST NO.

Ship you’re curious about: 👀

Anghel/Nageki. Let them interact more in the next game.

Ship that needs more love: 💖

...All of them. This fandom is tiny give the game more love before its ships.

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢

None that I can think of?

[sombrz]

Please imagine me just delivering these on a platter to ur sickbed: akira, minako, ochako, iida, (tries to think of a marvel comic person) uhh flash

thank you, thank you. who needs cough medicine when you have shipping.

(edit: i’m 99% healthy. it took me that long to finish this mess.)

AKIRA: okay, i think i remember telling you how i was pretty chill with akira ships. like, if done right, i don’t mind any of them, except for futaba (because they’re siblings, fu). besides our collective issues with atlus and their inability to not be weird when it comes to the girls. also, i feel like what makes the p5 kids feel the most like actual friends is also what makes it harder for me to fully invest in any individual dynamic - they all meet throughout the course of the game (even ann and ryuji aren’t close friends beforehand, and there’s definitely no drama between them) and they help each other heal and get past their abusers so that they can have a fresh start and feel free to be normal teenagers. so there’s little to actually grab onto when searching for….anything layered? like, compared to the p3 kids who have so much inner turmoil that they take out on each other - or the p4 kids, who can’t be completely truthful to themselves or each other. the p5 kids do have baggage, but not with each other. which makes for healthier bonds but also more boring ship dynamics lmao. all very cute and fluffy, but not a lot of substance. 

point is, i don’t really have much to say? like akira/yusuke is fun and silly. akira is eccentric and cool enough to go along with yusuke’s antics, and even though p5 always gives us an option to be mean, i can’t imagine akira ACTUALLY thinking that kind of stuff? like, he’s a weirdo too so he just. gets it. yusuke basically takes akira out on dates during his social link. they lend themselves well to model/artist headcanons and aus. they don’t realize they’re dating until a few months into their relationship - one of the others had to point it out and yusuke’s like ‘oh? is that what this is??’ and akira’s like ‘thank god’ bc he was too awkward to bring it up himself. futaba makes fun of them a lot.

akira and ryuji are cute too. i’ve gotten a bit fond of the boner squad (br)ot3 too. just ann/ryuji/akira being dumbasses. or ann/shiho+ryuji/akira being dumbasses while going on double dates. there’s also not really much to it - just the usual persona teen boy ‘no-homo-bromo-but-it’s-actually-homo’ fare. ryuji’s less possessive and repressed about it than yosuke is, though. which is good (ie more healthy) bc it’s more like akira found himself a human puppy jock boyfriend, and it’s cute! ryuji instantly decided he liked akira and started planning their secret handshake and selecting their cool delinquent hangout spot. and akira just smiles through it all bc he’s charmed. morgana gives akira the most judgemental stare ever when he finds out though. 

i like akira/haru bc she’s who i dated in my playthrough. they’re soft and sweet and i think a slow relationship built on patience is good for both of them. and they have the most obvious phantom thief couple aesthetic, tbh. they also have the ‘demure wallflower by day, trigger-happy hellion by night’ thing going on. i love the idea of them opening up a coffee place together (their futures align! this is the SO that sojiro approves the fastest lbr!) and akira being haru’s trophy husband (let this man be someone’s trophy husband).

akira/goro’s the one with the most depth lmao as our boy akechi gets the short end of the stick re: what everyone else got - to defeat their abuser and come out the other side a new and improved person. INSTEAD, it’s all about deep-rooted envy and what-ifs. when i replayed p5 for my friend’s benefit, she kept being like ‘wow ok akechi’s got….the most obvious crush on mc. why is he always here? why does he talk like that? omg?’ and my sentiments exactly. AKIRA’S thoughts exactly, tbh, bc what else is he supposed to get out of some of the things that come out of goro’s mouth. but it’s like….he DOES like akira, but he also resents his existence because akira gets to have real bonds and happiness despite the crappy hand dealt to him. and their own bond is based on careful lies and observing each other for any cracks in their armour. but there’s that undertone of wishing that they’d met in other circumstances, where they COULD have a normal relationship and get to know each other in a way that’s not ‘we levelled up our relationship when you shot me in the face with the intent of murdering me and framing me for my own death but really, i tricked you and you didn’t actually kill me & now we can defeat you and your dad! ha! checkmate!!’ but i love that that’s actually part of the dynamic so lmao.

MINAKO: you know, despite minako and minato being considerably different (both their external personality/appearances > emo boy/preppy girl  - and the changes in their dialogue choices > again, minako is a lot more confrontational and energetic), i pretty much just ship them with the same people?

the only exceptions of this being i ship minako with shinjiro and yukari but can’t really fathom either of them with minato. (it’s bc yukari is a lesbian and shinji does not deal well with sullen people. like, what’s he supposed to do? pat minato on the back?) 

i will also warn that it’s been….forever since p3 so i’m kinda fuzzy on details. 

anywhoooooo, AIGIS. main protag ship is aigis. idc which protag, but i must give atlus my once-in-a-blue-moon compliment because they kept aigis’ social link and her blatantly romantic feelings for the protag the exact same in portable. so minako/aigis is just as canon as minato/aigis, buahaha. anyway. robot girlfriend who starts off being somehow programmed to feel protective/indebted to minako but then starts developing real genuine feelings as she explores her humanity, minako wanting to show aigis how to enjoy herself while putting the emphasis on aigis’ feelings and opinions but also being so amazed and grateful for aigis’ love and attention. also, the difference between protags here being that while minato is silently intimate, minako is loudly loving. the utter tragedy that is aigis not being able to save the person she cares about, the imagery of minako’s head in her lap while they wait for the end is….A Lot. i think in a lot of tragic robot/human romance fiction, the robot gives up its life for their human partner so i like the reverse here - with aigis having to experience the emotions of loss and depression and overcoming that because she truly loved mina(k/t)o and now they’re gone. it’s heavy! it’s a lot! i just remembered i never finished the p3 movies! i should do that!

there’s ryouji. again, don’t care which protag - just like the idea of our mc flirting with death. literally flirting with the avatar of death. the double sides of the ship: goofy teenage flirting vs warning of impending doom. ryouji just being like ‘yeah just kill me it’s for the best i’m actually here to destroy the world or w/e’ to his gf (or bf) out of nowhere on christmas eve lmao. it’s fun, idk.

yukari! honestly, taking out all the forced hetero ship teasing made me ship her with minako more lmao their social link was just better! no offense! and their personalities mesh better too - i feel like yukari would get way too frustrated with a closed-off partner and i love concept of: the huffy takes-no-shits girl being soft for her cheerful outgoing gf. also, i spent way too long imagining the answer with minako - the aigis/minako/yukari would be heartwrenching and we deserve it. 

shinjiro! can i start off by saying it’s a good thing shinji was in p3, which did the best job of showing the characters apart from the protagonist and main plot (prob bc on the other hand, it did the worst job with social links seeing as none of the guys had them) - i feel like in p4 or p5, we wouldn’t have gotten to know him nearly as well before he died. anyway, his social link with minako is really sweet and a romance between them hits my ‘tsundere/flustered boy not knowing how to deal with affection from pretty girl he respects a lot’ checkpoints. and i need to talk about this: i feel like the decision to make him comatose instead of dead if you romance him was a double edged sword disguised as a blessing lol. because he was still DYING before he got shot, and also he wakes up just in time to find out his girlfriend died! fhdhfgdjd! 

                      —————————————————————– 

uraraka……okay: i ship her with tsuyu, bakugou, iida, mina and toga. 

oh, here’s a story. before i got into bnha, i stumbled on a bunch of deku/uraraka amvs and they were so precious. like, really, deku and ochako are the cutest goddamn things in this series. seeing them side by side makes me want to channel my inner grandmother and pinch their cheeks. it was, like, the only thing i knew about bnha at first, so i just figured i’d end up shipping it whenever i eventually got to watching it bc i’m easy to please like that. but ha. nah. it’s sad bc i love their dynamic when it’s focusing on their actual friendship but then the actual romantic hints made me want to roll my eyes so hard. it’s so BORING if you take it at face-value, and i’m so boggled by it if you look deeper bc i don’t understand what hori’s planning here. it’s irritating bc even uraraka admits that her borderline obsession (and that’s what it is, since it’s compared to TOGA’S CRUSHES…y’know, our resident yandere serial killer?) is detrimental to her growth as a hero. and i know it’s partially bc she’s a teenager but its blown so out of proportion. it’s a crush!! relax!!! like, compare to deku’s crush on uraraka where after he got over his initial anxiety of talking to girls, he - at most - just blushes a little when she stands too close or dresses extra-cute. every other time, he treats her no differently than any of his other friends. but then uraraka’s crush is treated like. this weirdly twisted admiration she doesn’t even WANT. she relates to a villain’s desire to imitate and become the person they like, she gets ridiculously jealous every time he looks at another girl, she keeps fucking up because she focuses too much on him and how to be like him. it’s weird. idk. typical fiction tropes lead me to believe i’m supposed to root for them to get together (and bnha will end with an epilogue where they have a child named after a food) but the story i’m being told makes me want to root for uraraka to succeed at getting over those feelings! idfk!!!

also, i have to laugh at the way horikoshi decided to tell us and uraraka herself that these feelings were romantic. by having aoyama just be like ‘oh you were thinking what would izuku midoriya do? could it be you love him?’ when we see multiple male friends of deku’s (iida and todo, in particular - hell, even aoyama himself) have similar WWMD thoughts and he, in turn, instantly imitates bakugou whenever he hits a roadblock (taking inspiration from to downright copying bakugou’s moves, trash talking his opponents, etc). am i supposed to see only uraraka’s feelings as romantic? why? because she’s a girl and deku’s a guy?

i like it better when iida’s involved. both iida and uraraka are so sweet and enthusiastic to counter deku’s more nervous personality, and they’re a very good trio! i tend to prefer them as a brot3 but as i said, i do ship iida/uraraka seperately! i don’t have any big reasons for it except i enjoy how contagiously energetic and silly they are around each other? dramatic too - remember the ‘REACH FOR MY HAND’ scene when all the UA students were freaking out? it’s just a simple best friend dynamic like what they have with deku but there’s no weird one-sided jealousy/competitiveness involved (luckily, iida got over it after the stain arc haha). they don’t end up feeling bad or unworthy of the praise they get from the other - which is great, because they’re very complimentary towards each other! iida is so understanding (his immediate reaction to uraraka being self-conscious about her reason for pursuing heroism) & uraraka is usually the one who vocalizes how cool and talented iida is (while also giggling her ass off whenever he gets all extra-dramatic)! tbh, curse their aborted moment after iida’s match with mei! let them praise each other!!! i like that their seats are so close to each other too - i wonder how horikoshi decided on the seating plan. but uraraka’s tendency to shake iida by the shoulders is precious & i bet you he breaks his staunch ‘follow-every-rule’ mentality when it comes to uraraka writing him little notes in class. also, maybe uraraka just deserves a sweet+rich boyfriend. it’s that easy. lmao.

i already talked about bakugou/uraraka. it’s great, dripping with potential, needs more canon interaction. i only trust a portion of its fanbase to do them properly. but this is the case for almost every big ship. (where’s that one fandom meme where one of the questions was like ‘what do you hate seeing in fanfic/content for them’ bc NOW THAT I’M ACTUALLY READING FANFIC AGAIN, LEMME TELL YOU. BEING A MULTISHIPPER IS HARD.)

tsuyu and uraraka are just genuinely a good match? i like the contrast between uraraka - who is emotional and upbeat - and tsuyu - who is calm and rational. but they’re both very perceptive? their first night at the dorms is a good indicator of how their dynamic works. the others are quick to accept that tsuyu doesn’t want to play along with the room competition, but uraraka both provides the excuse and lingers behind with worry. she probably had to convince tsuyu that it was okay for her to vocalize her feelings to the bakugou rescue squad, and volunteered to be with her during said confrontation. compare to the forest where tsuyu sweetly and calmly offers uraraka her hand because she sees her friend is scared, without actually needing to say anything else. they’re sweethearts. i absolutely adore them. oh, and i dig their earth/sky + pink/green aesthetic clash.

uraraka and mina are based on two things: 1) they’re always hugging and hanging out in official art/sketches (mina even has a selfie of them hanging on her wall of pics in her room) so i can only assume they’re super-close gal pals that should kiss, 2) i love shipping silly idiots together and it’s hard to find ships like this that are f/f but these two fit that specific chaotic mold!!! and 3) AESTHETIC DREAM!!! PINK SPACE GIRLS!!!! DO I NEED ANY OTHER REASONS? NO. NO, I DO NOT.

HOLY SHIT, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S OFFICIALLY CANON THAT TOGA HAS A ROMANTIC CRUSH ON URARAKA? again, i could write an essay on coding and how frustrating it is for characters like toga to usually be bi/pan. but no one’s claiming this a win for rep. and i’m FASCINATED by this dynamic. toga loves stain-sama for his ideals and how that enables her nature to kill. she loves deku-kun out of curiousity for his ideals and the fact they met when he was beaten to a pulp lmao. and she loves ochako-chan because she sees herself in her - she thinks that they share ideals. again, i have no idea what the long-term meaning for this development is but it’s clearly pitting them against each other? and adding a romantic element to that is hmmmmmmmmm. we’ll see, we’ll see. and like i mentioned above, it’s shocking and worrying and makes me ship uraraka and toga more that uraraka ALSO sees the similarity between her and toga. she’s horrified by the implications of it but she hears toga’s spiel and tries to fruitlessly deny that ‘yeah, she’s right. that’s how i am. we’re the same.’ if i were to ever write a traitor!uraraka fanfic (which i would if i could ever FINISH a writing project), it’d be uraraka/toga and uraraka trying to convince herself she’s better than toga, that she still has a moral code and her reasons for joining the league have more weight to it, and she doesn’t!!! care!!! what toga thinks of her!!! and expecting a rivalry but toga doesn’t meet that head-on because instead, toga wants to be close and connected to uraraka. toga has this kind of mature soft side we’ve seen before (with twice) that shows how she can see you at your core (her fight w/ uraraka also showed that) and i want to see uraraka to be on the end when she thinks she doesn’t deserve it and doesn’t trust toga and just being frustrated and confused over it all.

                        —————————————————————– 

iida…….i think deku, todoroki, uraraka and aoyama are my biggest ships for him. also, i don’t ship it myself but momo/iida/todoroki’s rich kid squad is A REALLY FUN DYNAMIC AND OT3.

LET’S BE REAL: IIDA/DEKU IS SO UNDERAPPRECIATED IN THIS FANDOM. ALL IIDA SHIPS ARE BUT….IIDA/DEKU. iida’s goddamn….tucked deku into bed. threw his hat in the ring of rivals. there’s official art of iida giving deku a shoulder ride. he punched him to make him see how his actions are affecting him - “haven’t you thought about how *I* feel [about you putting yourself in peril]?!” like. bro. okaaaay. i still laugh that they got on the wrong foot initially - deku was so scared of iida sjfhhf like he was equally worried he’d be stuck in the same class as iida as he was about kacchan. thankfully, iida’s a sweetheart who cares with all his heart, and he sees all that there is to admire about deku, so they became instant friends after that. and iida means SO MUCH to deku. i pay a lot of attention to how future!deku talks in his narration, because he normally interrupts the narrative to move the story along - by talking about minor time skips, the movement of the villains, etc. but he also tends to wax a bit poetic about his friends. like when he interrupted everything to give us a side-story about how and aoyama became bffs. so we can assume that aoyama’s friendship means a lot to adult izuku. or how comforting and important it is to me that even as an adult, he refuses to stop calling bakugou ‘kacchan’. it’s sweet. in that same vein, it strikes me that deku still holds an amount of guilt for not supporting iida better during the whole ingenium-stain debacle. it ended….much better than it could have, and that experience was what strengthened iida/deku/todo’s relationship. yet as an adult, deku still wishes he could have done more. offered iida the help he needed before he went rushing in. hoo. but anyway, yeah, they’re cute! wholesome nerd boys! cute height difference! also yeah, i’m glad that iida got over his sports-festival-era feelings of inferiority towards deku. deku loves competition, but you can tell that he didn’t want that out of his relationship with iida (compare to how he outright covets a rivalry with bakugou and accepted it from todoroki w/ his head held high). it wasn’t based on healthy feelings and they’re so much better as supportive bfs.

iida and todoroki have a lot of stuff in common as legacy heroes who were trained from childhood to be heroes - with the major difference that todoroki faced horrifying abuse that prevented him from having a close relationship with his siblings and made him want to reject his legacy, while the iidas are good folk and iida’s brother means the world to him and he’s so far one of the only heroes we know to reuse a superhero identity based on legacy. and even the painful bullshit (like the ‘take out your muffler and a new, stronger one will grow in’ thing) was something that iida went through on his own accord and with warning. and todoroki’s words of encouragement during the stain arc were based on his own life lesson! they both come off as very serious and abrasive elites at first glance, but they’re actually dorky and socially awkward! but i think they get each other - i imagine they have a very calming friendship, no need for pretenses and judgement, and they deserve that! they probably think the other is hilarious too even though absolutely no one else gets the joke! they had a lot of cute moments recently since they were paired in the same 1A vs 1B match. like iida can just…tell the minute differences in todoroki’s expression and demeanour apart and knows when there’s something wrong. and they’re just so humble and sweet and can’t handle the other being self-deprecating. they’re good boys, brent.

already talked about iida/uraraka. they’re cute, i love them.

AOYAMA THOUGH. knight boys! they were so good during the exam! it really got me that aoyama didn’t even consider the idea that iida might not abandon him, might want to help him and win together instead of just use him to get ahead himself - and iida didn’t even really get the emotional realization aoyama went through there but he was still like ‘YEAH WE DID GOOD! I’M GLAD YOU FEEL BETTER! THUMBS UP! :D’ they’re both very dramatic and - i don’t know how to describe it….they pose a lot, talk with their limbs. they’re silly, is what i mean. and maybe aoyama ALSO deserves a loving, rich boyfriend. MAYBE IIDA SHOULD BE EVERYONE’S LOVING RICH BOYFRIEND. but in this case, aoyama’s boyfriend who will carry him bridal-style everywhere, much to aoyama’s glee lol. except when he’s dragging him along via his cape. whatever works.

also, side note, i find it kinda interesting that fandom pairs him up with girls like mei and camie - when i just….feel like he’d be so out of his element and sooo overwhelmed? i’m wincing just thinking about it lol poor iida.

                        —————————————————————–

i’m glad you specified marvel bc if you’d just said ‘comic’, i would have assumed you meant THE flash and i would be forced to sit here and think of every dc speedster ship…..well, it wouldn’t be as bad as spidey ships (honestly i’m very basic with speedsters - it’s just like ‘speedster/their spouse’ with the adults (even wally - linda or bust, tbh) and ‘speedster/their best friends’ with the teens), but we’d be here longer. 

BUT FLASH THOMPSON? i already mentioned my two big ones, with venom and peter but i’m def willing to talk more about them.

 flash/venom, a man and his gooey alien husband. i love that it’s a relationship based on self-growth and healing from past hurt and stopping destructive habits and cycles (both that cause self-harm and harm onto others). one of my favourite panels is still where flash pleads with peter to not let his anger seep into venom because venom’s gotten past all that. he’s a better person (being. alien. thing.) now and doesn’t want to turn to feeding on rage ever again. and that’s true for flash (a victim of child abuse who bottled up all that sadness and rage and took his aggression out on other kids) as well. it’s just so….nice. and venom credits all this to flash. and a thing i find about venom is that its unhealthy dynamics are all about control - you’re just its host, it possesses you against your will, you become an out-of-control villain. but with flash, venom sees a partner and home - they need and belong with each other, they communicate and cooperate, they became a superhero. also i love how they’re seriously affectionate and intimate - that’s just kind of a given with venom, i think, because you have to invite & accept it as part of yourself. but flash is so soft with venom - while he’s not as….hm, vocal about it as eddie ‘ooh my love my darling~’ brock is (he’s also a bit less obsessive haha sorry eddie), he’s so protective and likes giving venom headscratches and kissy faces to the point others react to it like they would witnessing PDA. i just want flash to be all cute and smooch his husband when they’re not like. one singular entity. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE HEALTHIEST DYNAMIC FOR FLASH TO BE IN IS WITH A SYMBIOTIC ALIEN GOO CREATURE? I CAN. AND I’M THANKFUL FOR IT.

 i also ot3 them with eddie for the sake of my peace of mind where everyone’s happy. where venom’s not torn between two loves, and eddie doesn’t feel the need to think things like ‘it’s tough being someone’s second best’ and ‘i’d like to think he’d do the same for me but part of me knows that would be a lie. it’ll always be flash.’ and having those thoughts because he literally FEELS that pull towards flash? like he inherited those feelings, he KNOWS what it’s like to love flash thompson. LIKE, YO????? GIVE ME THAT SYMBIOT3.

then there’s flash/peter, the funniest super/civvie id love triangle in the world. flash having the biggest hero crush on spider-man in high school - so many superheroes to choose from but spidey is the best, because he’s an underdog, because he gets pushed down and refuses to give up, because he’s SO GODDAMN COOL - while simultaneously thinking peter is frankly, the worst? but in that terrible way where he fixates on peter even when he’s not part of the conversation. waiting for him to leave school so he can be mean to him, feeling frustrated whenever he tries to be nice to the guy and peter either ignores, rejects or insults him in return. peter just being like ‘Sigh’ whenever flash insults him by gushing about spidey, but that’s also why he can’t dislike flash no matter how bad their relationship is. how can he hate spidey’s biggest fan? and also he probably gets a good amount of pleasure out of flash’s gf liz allen having a crush on him. peter also does this to johnny and his gf, dorrie evans - they’re frienemies in high school and kind of obsessed with each other,,,,’heRE’S MY LIST OF 500 REASONS WHY I HATE THE HUMAN TORCH’ OK PETE RELAX. so yeah, peter, despite having genuine feelings for betty brant, hits on liz and dorrie whenever they cross paths and lets them use him to make their hot blond boyfriends jealous. (peter, maybe you ARE the worst. stop it.) and then when they get to college and end up in the same friend group, flash slowly realizes that peter is like. hot now? and like, kind of a cool dude who went through a lot! like, he thought peter was a jerk in HS but he’s actually really nice when he wants to be and is always in your corner! ‘wow, i really like and respect pete! i’m proud to be his friend!’ flash thinks while staring at peter’s biceps. meanwhile, peter has no idea what’s going on because he keeps expecting flash to turn back into a dick (and steal one of his girlfriends lmao) but instead, he just keeps proving he’s a great guy! and keeps confiding in him! and uh, complimenting him a lot? and still fanboys over spidey and that’s really endearing! and oh, he’s really gonna miss him whenever he’s on tour and the idea of flash dying is unthinkable and he really likes being his roommate and he’s who he wants to be his best man and he doesn’t get why flash doesn’t seem to realize how great he is, and welp, he just punched captain america in the face for not telling him flash was agent venom. anyway, bottom line: i like dynamics that are very….long-term and constantly changing? so i tend to fall for the enemies/rivals to friends to lovers thing. or friends to enemies to lovers. but this is a former situation for sure.

also, i’m convinced every corner of the college crew pentagon happened. flash and harry MUST have at least made out once and neither was sure how to deal with the aftermath of that for a couple of months. he’s kissed and casually dated gwen AND mj - but i find it interesting that it seems like neither girl really ever considered him a contender. gwen cares about him but sees him as a shoulder to vent to about her issues with peter, and mj has a lot of fun with him but also considers him the male version of her (outgoing and bright but unwilling to commit and act serious). and he interestingly backs down quickly when peter decides to make a move on the girls. like, compared to his love triangle with liz and peter where i feel he was pretty resistant to letting her go - especially to someone like puny parker, he responds to peter’s accusations re: gwen and mj with ‘hey, relax. it’s not like that. i wouldn’t do that to you.’ i take it as him growing up and not feeling the need to overcompensate to impress his dad and also maybe the fact that he’s a bit more aware of how closeted he is. but it’s weirdly different with harry (*cough* cause it’s the first dude aside from peter he had any romantic interaction with *cough*) so he just……..dances around those feelings (on top of both of their feelings for peter) until harry starts dating liz (BECAUSE EVERYONE DATES EVERYONE IN PETER’S CIRCLE OF PALS, I GUESS) and he’s just like ‘???????????? well okay then’.

i like his dynamic with felicia as much it also pains me - that felicia went into it thinking she could use flash to hurt peter (’i’ll break your heart like he broke mine!’) but then ended up legitimately falling for him and started hoping for a normal life with him. also that they liked hanging out in terrible workout clothes. nerds. (alas, it didn’t last bc….FLASH, BUD….BUDDY….I CAN’T BELIEVE MARVEL HAD FLASH SAY THAT AND THEN PROBABLY SAT BACK AND THOUGHT ‘YUP PETE’S BEST BUD FLASH IS TOTALLY STR8′) and i need to read more of him and betty to get a handle of that but. what i’ve gotten from the panels i’ve seen that it’s very dependant on the writer and has the same problem flash’s relationships with liz, gwen, mj and felicia had where there’s a lot of love there but the actual romantic element is….lacking? falls short? fizzles out? where he seeks out a connection to peter(/spidey) through his romantic relationship with a woman peter used to be involved with and pushes said woman away when she starts getting in too deep?

anyway, that just turned into an essay about how flash thompson has been gay since his conception and only like, 20% (maybe less) of writers in charge of writing him have actually realized it.