#I might've gotten some details wrong here and there and my analysis is 100% my own interpretation btw :0

[daz4i]

rambling under the cut, a mix of analysis and some fun facts and lore. royal AND strikers spoilers warning bc i got carried away

i said this before but i think it's incredibly sexy how that last room is a garden of eden with its own tree of knowledge in the middle

especially when the new mementos path added is called daat, aka the hebrew word for knowledge (it's kind of an obscure one that's mostly commonly used in the context of the tree of knowledge actually)

and this one's probably more of a common knowledge if you've dug just a little bit into p5 lore but the other mementos paths are named after the qliphoth (in rough translation, peels/shells), a term from the kabbalah for the symbols of evil that the world can't exist without (tho p5 uses a slightly different versions from the commonly used ones from what i read). i guess you can kind of compare it to the seven deadly sins, some of them even overlap actually!

anyway, the addition of daat is very sexy exactly because of that reason, imo. it's not one of them, as far as I'm aware, so it's essentially an addition of the first sin - eve biting the fruit of the tree of knowledge (EDIT: it's actually one of the sefirot that i talk more about later in the post! which makes this even sexier honestly)

back to the palace, the tree is a place of literal ascension, once again connecting to the path of daat - the only mementos path where you go up the escalators rather than down. people being in the most ideal place - literally the garden of eden - and still striving to go higher to an even better place, I'd argue like eve, who had the perfect life and still wanted more (tho, tempted by the serpent). i may be jumping to conclusions trying to read too deeply into things but i think that's like, foreshadowing of where maruki's plan would lead to. a life where everything is perfect would still not be satisfying for people since as a species we kind of always strive for more, and having our every need met would just be boring (the good place touched on that actually if you wanna see some other sexy takes on the matter)

now something interesting about adam kadmon. i thought it's interesting that it needs maruki to use as some sort of,, vessel? kinda? but then reading about the actual adam kadmon ("primordial man" in direct translation. fun fact it's actually how we refer to neanderthals in everyday hebrew) he probably didn't (doesn't??) have a physical form, being more like a deity, considering he's supposed to be the first man god created and a perfect, ideal one. so, i assume as a persona, in order to attack physical beings he'd need his own physical vessel. maruki is inside his head because, well, this is where knowledge - daat - is stored isn't it?

also fun fact if we're already speaking abt the kabbalah, the spheres you have to destroy while fighting the demiurge in scramble are actually named after the sefirot (in everyday hebrew meaning "countings" kinda, in spiritual one is actually apparently refering to spheres, or levels) from the, surprise surprise, tree of life in the kabbalah. basically you have to get them all in order to reach ein sof ("infinity"), a form of enlightenment that i honestly didn't do enough reading about to keep telling you about but it's apparently supposed to make you closer to god (a much smaller and unrelated fun fact: there's actually a common tarot reading based on it, considered to be the second most common thorough reading after the celtic cross)

it's interesting that they went with strong kabbalah themes for the final bosses in both games tbh, and it's honestly so cool they mixed lovecraftian elements into maruki actually (since mixing gnosticism in the form of both yaldabaoth and the demiurge - literally the same being with different names from what i know - works way better and more naturally to the point i was sure it's all from the same source up until I've done some deeper reading)

not to be jewish on main but we need to talk abt the last room in [redacted]'s palace in royal