#aigis (mentioned)

[blueskittlesart]

about the lesbian sex it's literally because the devs didn't bother to remove the aigis romance route for femc. they were too lazy to be homophobic. elizabeth is also romanceable btw.

honestly the funniest thing about all this is that i assumed that all romance was genderlocked and therefore decided to romance akihiko and i kept having to reload saves and google shit because he’s got like 6 different relatively innocuous dialog choices that will lock you out of romance forever. meanwhile i was coasting on vibes alone with aigis and she still ended her social link begging me to fuck her

[mochilovemail]

[z-grist]

Another storyboard I got to work on recently, this one focusing more on drama.

This one is a Persona 3 storyboard! Featuring Aigis and Akihiko. Big content warning for mention/discussion of an Eating Disorder. This is based on a story by @halfpennyjones, "Inversion" on ao3.

Done on Storyboard Pro, and (most) backgrounds were done on Blender 3D. Thanks for watching!

[no1ryomafan]

I said I was gonna talk more about MM on this blog again and I will probably eventually do analysis stuff I just need to prep this shit cause those post take time for the ones that are more coherent and not just my usual word vomits, BUT I do need to word vomit for a second about one thing that plagued my mind again today.

One of my biggest peeves with the series lore is how reploids and humans hardly have interactions, more so in the X series as Zero makes a bit more effort in this regard, given it’s a huge deal how reploids are seen lower then humans for the longest time- but what has dawned on me more of another factor that really sucks about this is how reploid society itself is ALSO unexplored.

We hardly have any idea of what makes them different from humans, we can only grasp basic details from what the games provide us but it’s unclear if there society is either “very much identical to humans but still has changes to make it different given their machines” or “completely different down to how they live and are treated”. I can’t speak for every robot media ever as I haven’t consumed them all-that’s a impossible task as some are bound to not interest me lol-but I feel like ones that are primarily having sentient robots and multiple of them rather then stuff like mechas where they don’t have much of a personality (usually) or the cases like Aigis in P3 where she is a robot in a mostly human society and therefore learns to become more human, they usually try to give the robots some kind of established society but MM only gives us breadcrumbs.

Like I know transformers is a bigger series so it got more chances to be incredibly fleshed out but I think about how my friends had told me about it and it’s society from just the comics is incredibly detailed that you even know they have religions n shit. And I’m not saying MM has to go to that extent even if it’s had metaphors of that in the later series, but more context to what reploid society has and doesn’t would be nice.

If they actually do need to eat and we aren’t supposed to guess that the energy tanks n stuff are there equivalent, if they ever got to have hobbies or jobs besides serving under humans especially when they have free will, etc. More of how they operate would be really nice to know but alas much like many things in this series lore it’s never going to be deeply elaborated on so I have to throw darts at a board.

[theoneprecioustome]

Ribbon says Aigis is "special" (特別) and Makoto goes "You see, Aigis?/There you have it, Aigis". He really is out there making sure Aigis feels loved at all times 😭

I'm not sure why, but that Ribbon line was translated as "Aigis-san, thank you in particular..." so it looked like Makoto was just agreeing with Aigis being "free", even though Aigis' next line is literally "I'm not special" lol

[nikkisticki]

I think I have to block Persona 3 so I don't have to hear more about Reload, not a fan of a bad company that hates queers and innovation now taking their best game and un-innovating it

[a-sketchy]

hmmmmmmm now that i’ve finished p3p i guess my choices now are to watch the answer, start a ng+, or start p4g. i think i’m leaning towards that last one

[kotoneshiomiofficial]

happy international women's day

[start id: a meme featuring aigis and shadow labrys from persona 4 arena ultimax. aigis, wearing a black double-breasted suit jacket and red tie says "Be patient, it can take up to 45 minutes for an edible to start metabolizing". Next to her, shadow labrys wearing a yasogami high uniform says "Just keep eating them until you feel something". end id]

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Love this “for you” thing Twitter, esp when it involves people I don’t follow with takes I don’t agree with. And here I am coming in to defend fucking P5 of all things. How did I get here? DX How have I sunk so low? u_u 

Anyway someone said that Persona hasn’t had any passion since P3 (so P4 onward has been soulless).

And.....I don’t agree with it. Obvie, I love P4 and it’s spinoff era (I found it fun and def the opposite of soulless). Yes, that includes P5 and it’s spinoffs. And this is coming from someone that hates P5 and it’s spinoffs.... because of the writing. Not the “lack of passion.” 

I do think Atlus has gotten shittier with it’s business decisions (such as DLC), but I wouldn’t call it passionless. I don’t think passionless people would make hours of cut content, would try to work old ideas from P1/2 back into modern Persona. Business decisions and their team is not automatically indicative or reflective of the creative team or their choices.

Do I think the writing really shit the bed starting with P5? Yeah. But I don’t think it’s from a lack of passion, just a lack of oversight/control (P5 literally has an over abundance of writers and lack of editors, and that’s the same issue Ultimax ended up having). Having plot holes and inconsistencies and some quality control issues doesn’t indicate a lack of passion. 

“Oh you’re just upset because they insulted P4″ yeah, but I don’t think what they implied about P5 is right either. The creative team def shows passion. They brought back ideas from P1/2 and even FeMC the second they got away from Hashino. And I don’t think Hashino is bad either, I think he had a creative vision (aka having P3 be a soft reboot for the series and thus not bringing back a lot of ideas from P1/2) and wanted to see it through. I don’t think that’s inherently passionless of him (in fact, him wanting to stick to his vision might be considered very passionate!). 

Was it a stupid business decision? Yeah a bit (personally it’s whatever, it held things up but didn’t completely screw the lore), but that’s a different issue. 

I dunno it’s just....annoying. I get it, I’m frustrated with Atlus’ business decisions too. I’m frustrated from all the P5 stuff (I’m giving P5X a chance because new cast, new chance), cause I don’t like P5 or the PT. But just cause you don’t like it doesn’t mean the creators “lack passion.”

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

Man I forgot that Strega was also a hitman group lmao

[systematicallycapricious]

Some Ergo Lore!

Disclaimer: I’ve been staring at both this and my cacophony of assorted AoN notes for too long, so if something doesn’t make sense in it, just let me know and I’ll do my best to clarify it.

(Additionally, stuff like the metaphysical aspects of how Evokers work and more on how they’re used for research are still in the works, so I’ll likely be including those in different lore docs later on. /o/)

[midnightclover]

4 11 and 15 for the ask game? :3

4... see, the most important part of a fishing minigame isnt the minigame itself, but the rest of the game around it. so this is kinda difficult. id mention a bunch of examples but.. it got kinda long, so lets skip to the punch, yah?

a short hike has the best fishing minigame ive seen. the minigame itself is simple, just mash a, and it's hard to fail, but the fun comes in with trying to find out where each type of fish lives.. you end up trying every little spot of water on the island, and finding rarer and rarer variants! its just a fun time (also once you find one of each fish you can talk to the fisherman on the boat and get a gold fishing rod which finds rare variants easier)

11. favourite berry? hm... raspberry. kinda close between raspberries and blackberries

15. a quote from a game that lives rent free in my head.. theres quite a few to pick from. i'm not sure what to choose.

ah how about this? even though it's been ages since i've played it, i still occasionally have himiko from fucking danganronpa v3 in my head going "Nyehh...."

[bakafurai]

WOAH AU JUMPSCARE!!! hi yes this is my very self indulgent hamtoshi au I have lovingly called reversed fates!

Basically it's a ng+ au where Hidetoshi somehow travels back in time a year after wishing he could have done something to save Kotone and takes on the wildcard role in her stead. He's the only who remembers everything, but he quickly learns how little that actually helps him when it comes to the dark hour...

More details under the cut! (Huge shoutout to some of the peeps over in the Hidetoshi Server btw for their big brained ideas... ya'll are my life saviours i swear fjghf)

More details on the main gang's personas (+Hidetoshi's starting social stats)

(Note: as of writing this I have not finished P3P so I don't have a list of the Personas from Kotone's compendium yet.)

As for the velvet room, Hidetoshi gets his own Velvet Room attendant by the name of William, who I have shared a reference here, his velvet room basically looks like those film noir detective office.

Because of the nature of his arrival to the velvet room, and the fact that Kotone already filled her compendium, Hidetoshi is not allowed to fuse personas- he is however free to summon and use Personas from the compendium (William is... too nice and socially anxious to charge him money for it).

Some other info about the AU! >Kenji swaps roles with Junpei, while Rio swaps roles with Chidori. >In his au, Kenji knows Rio but hasn't seen her in 10 years so is unware she is also a persona user working with Strega. >Chidori is a regular student at gekkokan, a third year student who manages the art club. >Kotone remembers nothing, however the death incarnate within her does! The bad news is that Pharos' memories are scattered and he can only remember enough to know that he can't let her sign the contract... The good news is that Hidetoshi can see & hear him for some reason and doesn't hesitate to sign it if it means saving Kotone. >Did I mention this is a hamtoshi au? yeah this guy didn't get to confess his feelings last time around and he ain't about to mess that up twice...He just has to get to know her as a friend all over again. (oooh he internally yearns for her sooo bad you have no idea, he loves her so much) >Aigis is no longer here, instead taking her role is Makoto! He definitely wasn't there last time though... >Hidetoshi and Kenji are in 2-E, while Kotone and later Makoto are in 2-F.

[dulcibella-dreams]

How about Minato comforting a sick SO ? Mitsuru will be super strict regarding the quarantine but Minato will find a way.

P3 protag comforting a sick S.O.!

𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔 A/N: screaming. YOU KNOW I’VE HAD THIS IDEA BEFORE? hsjdkwkakdkw I have a soft spot for this idea. This sounds to me more like a story type beat than a dot point, so that is what I have done :) also tee hee I'm sick rn so 💕Hope you enjoy anon!!

You had it really badly. Shivering in your bed with tissue boxes running out by the minute, your body was in a state of swelter and ice.

Mitsuru had absolutely banned everyone from coming to see you. Even Aigis. Why Aigis???? Not like she was going to catch the flu. You rolled your eyes.

The buzzing of your phone followed your second sneeze in a row. You were really hoping one of your friends cared enough about you to text you. Maybe this time it wouldn't be wilduck burgers persuading you to buy their ‘super mystery X exclusive alien edition triple patty burger’. You were indeed pleased when you saw Minato's number pop-up.

“How are you?” You almost rolled your eyes again. “Sick.” You stared intently at the 'typing...' icon. “I'm coming up to see you.” You blinked a couple times at your screen. You had a sudden vision of him getting brutally executed by Mitsuru. You also didn't want to pass your illness to him, or have him see you in this puffy and runny nose condition. But also, you missed your boyfriend a lot. Mitsuru had you basically locked up like jail in your room for 3 days now.

You quickly hit backspace on your DO NOT DO THAT message, and instead opted for a “how???” He responded quickly. “don't worry about that.” Why did he have to be so cryptic. It didn't make him edgy or mysterious. Okay, yes it did and it definitely added to his charm, but that was besides the point.

You looked at your window. No, he wasn't about to learn how to fly. Or get a long ladder. Or would he get a long ladder? Your laugh quickly descended to a chesty cough. The boy of your heart was truly something. He clearly missed you, despite his casual demeanour.

You suddenly hear a raised authoritative voice. Oh. Mitsuru was not pleased. “You can't go up there! You are putting at risk all of us, not to mention the student body…!” Her voice resigned after Minato very nonchalantly walked into your room and locked the door behind him. Oh yeah, that's right. You forgot he literally does not care. You notice a large open container in his hands, all contents except a water bottle obscured to you.

“She won't be coming up here.” You give him a smile. “She’ll kill you, you know.” “That's a problem for later.” He found a seat on the edge of your bed, resting the back of his palm against your forehead. “You’re feverish.” You gave him a long hard look that said, ‘no way, really?’ but kept your mouth shut, since you were honestly so pleased he was here.

Setting the container down by your bed, he pulls out a small, cold wet towel to place on your forehead. You sigh happily as your scorching skin seems to lull slowly. He grabs one of your hands, and rests it in his lap as he holds it. Minato looks in your eyes as the room fills with a moment of silence. “No-one could keep me from you.” You have to look away so you don't make a fool of yourself. It's rare for him to be so blatant about his feelings for you. He didn't seem to care about your sniffling nose, your raspy voice, or your chapped lips. You were his love, after all.

Minato gently lifted your head, resting it in his lap. He propped you up to undo the ponytail you had messily done last night. It had soothed your burning shoulders then, but now it just ached. His fingers gently threaded through your hair, completely relieving the tension. You could not fathom why he had come so prepared, but he procured a hairbrush and began working through your hair slowly. It was such a soft act of intimacy, to actively look after you in this way. To never want anything in return. His satisfaction always seemed to derive from seeing you content. You closed your eyes and lost yourself in the moment, never wanting to leave.

After some time, the silence was interrupted with a: “…Oh yeah, I brought you your favourite snack.” You watch as he reached into the container again to procure you your gift. Your sickened state almost made you barrel towards tears, but you instead settle on pulling him into a sudden hug. You couldn't even care if you got him sick anymore. You left a trail of kisses from his collarbone all the way up to his cheeks, the edge of his mouth, and finally pressing against his lips. You stay there for quite sometime, your fingers now finding his hair instead. When you pull away, he looks vaguely amused, with the slightest smirk on his face.

“I think you forgot about your snack.”

[melliae]

The Great Seal’s Design

Considering how close Episode Aigis/The Answer is to being released, I think it’s time to point out one of the most interesting design choices in the game. Because everyone must have asked themselves why does the Great Seal look like this:

A golden door with 6 eyes and 4 spirals…

Well, the choice for it to be a door has an obvious source: one of the titles the Death card receives in esoteric traditions (in particular Thelema) is the “Lord of the Gate of Death”. This title is also seen in the card rendition of P3 and P4.

The doors behind the skull? Yeah, they are the ones.

I don’t think I’ve to do an in-depth explanation of why doors—and threshold in general—are a perfect representation for death and transformation/evolution, going from the known and familiar world into the great unknown, from the inner into the outer and vice versa.

“Man is a gateway, through which from the outer world of gods, daemons, and souls ye pass into the inner world; out of the greater into the smaller world. Small and transitory is man. Already is he behind you, and once again ye find yourselves in endless space, in the smaller or innermost infinity. At immeasurable distance standeth one single Star in the zenith.” - Seven Sermons to the Dead.

And as a curiosity that has no particular relation with the Seal’s design: Makoto creates the Seal within Nyx’s body, yet The Answer showed him using it within the depths of the collective unconscious. Pretty interesting indeed, and I can only link it with the Star mentioned in the previous quote, and thus with…

“An Indian picture of Shiva-bindu, the unextended point. It shows the divine power before the creation: the opposites are still united. The god rests in the point. Hence the snake signifies extension, the mother of Becoming, the creation of the world of forms. In India this point is also called Hiranyagarbha, 'golden germ' or 'golden egg.'” - Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

How I lied about its importance xD

Again, I’m not going to repeat the meaning and role of Nyx’s here; I already wrote a post about it. So to put it shortly, Nyx isn’t something that can't be defeated, but only accepted, integrated and transformed. That’s why the Great Seal is a door, because doors are meant to be opened, to communicate the outer with the inner. However, as life and humanity are unable to confront their darkness, the Gate is sealed for the time being.

Now, moving into the next element, there’s the 6 eyes! And I have a perfect quote once more.

“Eyes are round and in common speech are likened to ‘cart-wheels.’ They also seem to be a typical symbol for what I have called the ‘multiple luminosities of the unconscious.’ By this I mean the seeming possibility that complexes possess a kind of consciousness, a luminosity of their own, which, I conjecture, expresses itself in the symbol of the soul-spark, multiple eyes (polyophthalmia), and the starry heaven.” - Mysterium Coniunctionis.

That quote was in regard to an analysis of Ezekiel’s visions about (biblically-accurate, duh) angels, the cherubim and ophanim. Since those angels are the bearer of God’s throne, they become extensions of his essence and symbols of the Self as well, of the unified and whole nature of man. The animal and monstrous characteristics of the angels are due to said wholeness, which fully embraces the autonomous and (sometimes) beastly aspects of the unconscious.

At any rate, the same logic should apply to the Great Seal, with the multiple eyes it has being representations or outright multiples souls/complexes that are working harmoniously as one, constantly watching their surroundings. In that regard, the number of eyes also makes sense: 6 is the quantity of directions (above, below, front, back, right, and left) in a 3D-space like the universe. While the number doesn’t really fit with the hindu Lokapala, it does with their role as the guardians of the cardinal directions and eternal watches of the universe at large.

However, as far as I’m aware, there’s no particular relevance of the number 6 within a psychoanalytic context beyond two mentions. The first one is in the explanation of Seven Sermons, where the candelabra named “Ignis” and “Eros” has seven arms due to the spiritual principle of the number 3, or “3 + 3 + a special 1”, which in turn connects with the second mention:

“Luna is thus the sum and essence of the metals’ natures, which are all taken up in her shimmering whiteness. She is multi-natured, whereas Sol has an exceptional nature as the ‘seventh from the six spiritual metals.’ He is “in himself nothing other than pure fire.” - Mysterium Coniunctionis

This one makes more sense, considering Makoto’s visage is a white/gray stone hanging near the center of the Seal. It could also connect with the alchemical symbol of the hexagram, representing the union of opposites during the Great Work and, as per Tatsuya’s Scenario, the macrocosm of space—or the macrocosmic universe (“大宇宙”). And just to put the final nail on the coffin:

“This sun has seven rays. A commentator remarks that four of them point to the four quarters; one points upwards, another downwards, but the seventh and ''best" points inwards. It is at the same time the sun's disc, named Hiranyagarbha.” - Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

The six eyes are the multiple “consciousnesses” that watch over the ever-expanding and ever-developing outer word. They observe and change, focusing only on the reality that surrounds them. While the seventh ray, the most important and exceptional “metal” of all, focuses inwards, into the equal and contrary of the macrocosm: the human soul. And that disposition isn’t only found in Makoto’s “soul”, but also in the other element on the Seal, the 4 spirals.

“We can hardly escape the feeling that the unconscious process moves spiral-wise round a centre, gradually getting closer, while the characteristics of the centre grow more and more distinct. Or perhaps we could put it the other way round and say that the centre—itself virtually unknowable—acts like a magnet on the disparate materials and processes of the unconscious and gradually captures them as in a crystal lattice." - Psychology and Alchemy

4 is the number par excellence of the process of individuation and the Self, the sacred quaternity that’s ever so prevalent in mythology and folklore. And it’s present along with the figure of the spirals that, as previously quoted, stands for the movement of the psyche around its core and whole nature, the Self. Thus, the spirals go on forever, endlessly and fruitlessly getting close to the underlying archetype of life and humanity.

The eyes and spirals, then, present complementary imagery. They both represent the simultaneous collectivity and individuality of the Self, which is “smaller than small and bigger than big”. Yet, the divinity present on them is only fulfilled when the effigy of humanity is included, the immobile and changeless center from which every movement emerges and around which they move.

However, life is bound by time and change by definition. It transforms itself to accommodate archetypal wholeness. So what happens when that wholeness is achieved and embodied?

“That would probably mean—translated into our language—that when the Self, after having grown within the earthly man, has completely reached its goal, i.e., the mandala of the unus mundus, then it has a deadly effect on the earthly body because it has reached a form of definite oneness with the all-pervading cosmic One-continuum, which seems to be hostile to separated existence.” - Psyche and Matter, by Marie-Louise Von Franz.

The Self, the union between the outer and the inner, is the final goal of life, its purpose. And once it’s achieved, life is ready to “depart”, but not completely. Again, when individuation is finished the individual becomes one with the collective and world at large, and just like them, it keeps going even after death, though not necessarily in a physical manner. Again, the only thing that dies is the physical body, because the realized essence becomes everlasting, like stone itself.

“Then spirit, soul, and body become ‘the One, in which the whole mystery lies hidden.’ This ‘One’ is also described as a stone statue which is born out of the fire. It unites spirit, soul, and body and contains all four elements.” - Psyche and Matter.

The real stones that everyone knows of aren’t eternal, obviously. I’m not speaking about that kind of thing, but of their symbolic nature as things that surpass the lifespans of all living beings, that resist the weathering of time and the elements. Thus, what element better than stone to represent the non-bodily eternity of the soul? Even Erebus, with a strength that Elizabeth said was enough “to tear down mountains to the heavens”, can’t even put a scratch on Makoto’s effigy.

Following with the stone motif, Christ’s association with stones can also be noted, the eternal cornerstone of the house of god, as well as the Philosopher’s Stone, which, despite having red as its main color as seen with Trismegistus, is said to be a manifestation of God like Christ is, and the microcosm itself—the perfected human spirit. But again, the main idea behind the statue is the fact that it’s Makoto’s crystallized life force, made to last as long as humanity finds life unbearable.

The Great Seal, the manifestation of Makoto’s soul and his final resolution, will forever remain in the abyss of the collective unconscious as a symbol of the potential that lies dormant within everyone—the timeless bond that joins everyone as one. And as long as it remains as such, the Gate will be eternally closed, immovable as a mountain.

He may look alone, but that's from the truth.