#Gone but not forgotten uAu we can only hope he'll find a way back some day but tbh only if he's handled very carefully

[ancient-day]

My personal theory / hope is the reason akechi isn't in a lot of spin offs is cause it's just kind of hard to do without like pivoting the story

But when akechi finally returns we wil be fed , cause to one pq2 enjoyer to another it made me go " woah this creative team really does have so so much love for these little characters "

He's too powerful, and his inclusion in any narrative focused on just the PT automatically puts him in the spotlight because he's such a scarce character that we can't help but rub our eyeballs all over every single scene he's in. Plus, too many things would get solved too easily. He looks at these tactics and just shoves Joker's and Makoto's strategies to the side and takes over. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

I'm not really holding out hope for him coming back in anything unless they do something like Arena/Ultimax because I think tone-wise, post-Royal Goro wouldn't fit so easily into silly hijinks. I mean, I still think as a concept, that alone is hilarious, and I would love to see chibi Black Mask being an absolute bitch, but the likelihood is... slim. At the same time, I've absolutely been wrong before, and I welcome it. I think the ambiguity of his fate is something that fans really enjoy, and I completely understand the appeal of it, but I think that having him resurface a good while after the events of P5R would make more sense than something taking place just a few months later.