#I firmly disagree with dr maruki

[sapphic-scylla]

Why Dr. Takuto Maruki in P5R is Wrong and Why His “Perfect Reality” is Deeply Upsetting P.2

(This is a continuation of a hyperfixation rant that spoils a great deal of the ending of P5R and addresses mental trauma and therapy in great detail. So please, make sure you know what you’re getting into when reading this. Also, while I have played P5R many, many times and have experienced a pretty hefty amount of my own trauma and suffering in my own life, I’m not an expert on psychology and matters of the mind, so most of the thoughts on his mental state are purely perspective and opinion.)

If you want the rest of this rant, scroll my page and you’ll find it eventually.

The rest of this rant was spawned from an epiphany I had when traversing Futaba’s Palace again (which, if you know me well, you’re aware of my deep emotional connection to Futaba, her story, her experiences, and her entire personality; don’t worry, I’ll explain it in more detail in a future post).

The final nail in the coffin of me actively picking apart the reason why Maruki’s palace was an abomination was the existence of Futaba and the Necronomicon itself (which is Futaba’s persona.

The finality this brings to the truth of my beliefs is that, just as Joker and Crow were opposites of each other, Maruki and Azathoth are the antithesis of Futaba and Necronomicon for the following reasons:

Futaba’s persona’s power is the ability to distinguish the truth from from the lies. She also has the ability to manipulate cognition to work in her favor. Maruki’s works in counter to that in the way of being able to extend his cognition into the world and manipulate the world in his favor while covering the world in what can only be described as an illusion or a “lie” and actualize it as fact, forcing everyone to live in that lie.

Futaba’s and Maruki’s personas both wield tentacles (probably due to the Lovecraftian connection) and function as “vehicles” for their hosts to manifest their wills and desires out of. Not necessarily a deep and complex connection, but it definitely strengthens the metaphor.

Both Palaces manifested not out of a mind of evil, but out of a mind of trauma. Both lost someone dear to them, but sought different solutions. Futaba sought to see the truth behind her mother’s death, while Maruki sought to hide, bottle, and otherwise mask his own pain, so that he could “never be hurt by it again” while disguising it under the face of “she would be happier without me”.

Lovecraft (despite his DEEPLY problematic works due to his truly despicable outlook on life and the people therein) had a theme through the genre of his stories which perpetuated into the future of Cosmic Horror (which, thank god, is nowhere near as problematic). That theme is that nothing is ever as it appears and that monsters lurk everywhere, especially in the places that no one would ever think to look. You would never think your own reality to be a lie that you’re being strangled by or that such a conventionally attractive, easy-going therapist that only ever offers kindness and snacks would turn into a cult leader/world dictator, but here we are.

The Necronomicon, by H.P.’s definition, was the account which was carrying the names of all the “Old Ones” and details as to the means by which they were summoned, essentially branding itself as the deeper knowledge and the way to keep monsters restrained and controlled. Azathoth, as previously mentioned, is the Great Old One of Creation, Change, and Destruction. The weapon of most entities that Lovecraft created was madness or insanity i.e. the loss of one’s ability to control one’s rationality. Sound familiar? If you really think about it, despite Azathoth’s overwhelming amount of power in canon, he is still restrained by the power of the Necronomicon because he cannot spread his influence without the entities restrained by its pages, so as a result, the Necronomicon is the entity that holds Azathoth at bay by imprisoning and subduing his followers.

The brain, by itself, even under amnesia, continues its attempts to help its host body to recover its memories. Most people that suffer amnesia, even though the time varies, eventually rebuild the memories their brain collected across their lives. We saw that with Futaba. Though she did not have amnesia, she was able to recover her own memories of the trauma catalyst and the brain reworked itself from there (added note: the only thing the phantom thieves did in Futaba’s palace was lead her to her own truth. We did not change her heart. We merely helped Futaba fight her own demons. She came in, saw the light, fought, and left of her and her own shadow’s power). Given ample time, I firmly believe that, even if the Phantom Thieves had not stepped in or if we had failed, humanity WOULD NOT HAVE STAYED HAPPY FOREVER IN MARUKI’S REALITY.

THAT would have been the chain reaction event that would eventually drive the world to madness. One person would have recovered their true memories, then another, then another. All progressively shattering out of the rose colored glasses Maruki had dropped over the world and, in seconds, every single person would have caved into madness because they know what reality looks like and seeing all of the lies that we’re too real to be able to mesh their minds with? True and utter chaos. And as I said in my last post, the lid covering the sins that every utopia hides would spill out across the world like a tidal wave. And Maruki, still believing in his cause, would watch his own work shatter and bear sole witness to the world caving to a pain deeper and more profound than even he could possibly imagine.

On a deeper level, lies, no matter how well told they may be or how well concocted the may seem, always cave to the truth. Despite what we may understand, the truth of how events came about always breaks down even the most flawless, infallible lie. That’s how Joker gets acquitted. That’s how everyone shatters out of Maruki’s world. Even though Maruki believed his conceived “perfect” reality, each of our heroes mentions the idea that each of them knew the truth of that reality, but refused to believe it at the time because it was easier to live in a world where none of their problems existed. Yusuke returned to his old master, Madarame. Ryuji returned to the track team that scorned him. Haru returned to her dad who was not only dead, but a greedy CEO. Makoto forgot all of the lessons she learned from the dad who died fighting for what he believed was a just future. Even Futaba, seer of lies herself, forewent the truth, even though she had an incredible catharsis of the growth through learning that trauma and lies do not define how you live your life just because her mom was alive. Which is ignoring the truth and your problems. Which is ignoring your growth. WHICH IS CALLED REGRESSION. You know. As in “Prison of Regression”? YALDABAOTH’S PRISON? Same fly-covered turd, different shiny, gilded platter.

And to bank off of all of this and add even deeper context…

To pick on Joker and Crow a little bit, the reason they oppose each other is because while Crow’s persona can create anger, hatred, and tunnel vision in someone and create a malice towards one’s circumstances or drive them beyond rational thought, people miss what Joker’s capabilities are and why he stands toe to toe with Crow and even stands far above him in my opinion even though no one recognizes it in-game. Joker’s ability is to understand and connect. Joker’s power gives him access to the myriad of personas that sit in the Compendium. Each of them resonates with people that he comes into contact with and, despite it being put forward as the MEANS to connecting with people, that’s not the most important thing it does and that same power is actually the ENDS of his willingness to listen. He doesn’t gain the power to talk to people and connect, it’s from helping them thereby that he gains access to deeper power which then helps him connect, so on and so forth. Lifting them out of unfair circumstances and helping them regain their belief in their own free will. Notice the only thing Joker ever does is talk with confidants and help them weigh their options, only ever occasionally stepping in to change a heart or two and even then, in Mementos, he’s talking to the shadows and helping them see why their actions are causing themselves and other people’s pain. The difference between Crow and Joker is that Crow is so burdened by his own injustice that, as is said in-game, Crow only ever grows two personas. “One for his lies and one for his hatred” while Joker, open to pushing through his own pain and focusing on others rather than himself, gains access to the many and the myriad of personas that his heart was open to accepting and thus gains the power to kill a god of control and a god of actualization.

And even after all those two rivals went through together, even Goro Fucking Akechi. King Lies himself. The guy that built an ENTIRE LIFE off of the lies he told, the people he deceived, and the Pillar of Babel he built himself only to be thrown off of it by his own shadow at the end of his life. Even despite a second chance given by Maruki himself, Akechi rejected the second chance he was given because it would mean that he would never be living as himself. Despite how DEEPLY he would hate speaking the reality of it, Joker taught him that a life living behind a lie was a farce. Living under the thumb of something that could twist his ambitions and force him to regress back behind the fake persona that was Robin Hood? He would, without even a shadow of a doubt, rather have died facing the truth of himself behind that bulkhead instead of living a long and perhaps healthy life as a mere fabrication of what he really was.

Maruki couldn’t understand the TRUE struggle between these two gentlemen. How could he? He only ever thought he did. The true struggle was never about a simple rivalry. It was never about whose persona was better or whose power was more uncompromised or even about the power struggle between the Mysterious Leader of the Phantom Thieves versus the Brilliant Ace Detective. No. It was a friend offering a hand to a person who had gone off the deep end and was festering in deep personal conflict with themselves. And, at the end of that person’s life, the friend finally having the ability to connect with him and help him see how truly profound Joker’s care was for the guy that refused to reach back with any of his honesty. Maruki never understood that. Why not? Because how could the two most bitter of rivals and unlikely of confidants ever have come together in such an honest, pure, and deep seated conflict and yet form the most unbreakable connection that would stick with Joker for the rest of his life as a reminder of what it meant to truly be there for someone no matter how difficult it got or how much they pushed you away without having suffered so much to get where they were in the engine room of that ship. And Maruki was willing to take EVERY. SINGLE. BIT. of that growth and progression away with a single wave of his hand. As great as peace is, true bonds of friendship and mutual love and respect cannot be forged without conflict, suffering, and pain. The most tempered and sturdy swords CANNOT be forged without hours of heat so fervent, it would sear your flesh, and being molded into shape by a hammer.

Problems, struggles, addictions, suffering, and pain all meet at the same mouth of the same river of the human condition. If you do not keep going, leaning on friends and confidants for support and pushing through the inevitable rapids and rocks and waterfalls and deep water that you will slam into, you will start attempting to regress back where you came from. And despite how hard it seems to be ahead of you, it’s much harder to fight against the current along with everything else than to rush where the current will take you and maybe dodge the rocks and rapids if you keep looking where you’re going. And who knows? Rivers branch off. Deltas exist. You can direct your own path easier if you push with the current instead of against it. I’m never saying it will be easy, but fighting a current you can’t control and attempting to regress can take you places you never wanted to go.

Maruki almost learns this lesson too late. He almost gives himself to the next life and succumbs to his self-destructive tendencies and no lesson would ever have been learned. And in the end, when all is said and done, he finally understands. Not on the precipice of his crumbling monument to his anguish, but in the front seat of his own taxi-cab, driving the person that saved his life to wherever he may go next.

It’s okay to start your life over. It’s okay to push the reset button. Life is about mistakes. Every living being makes several every day. All of us stumble on the path to becoming ourselves. The only true error is refusing to grow and learn.