#akira cant be anything less than himself. and his Self is the audience's Potential

[harpieisthecarpie]

Giving Lue art ideas is an honor and a privilege. Also I love munching on video games as literature bc their themes can be furthered in so many little aspects. That ludonarrative!!!!!

Damn Im probably gonna start playing p5r again tonight...

But with the foggy glasses! I love how Akira's glasses are used for humor (especially on that one Akechi date >.>) in scenes that can also be read as foreshadowing/thematic. Bc "glasses obscuring the face & intent of their wearer by being literally opaque" is such instinctual anime/cartoon shorthand that a character's glasses fogging up and making them appear sinister is a really common joke.

But we can compare the cute jokey fogged glasses with Akira's Persona Awakening scene (thanks yt compilation vids). In the cut-scene, his glasses go between amplifying and obscuring his eyes while his internal sense of justice wars with the restraints his experiences made him internalize.

When his glasses fall and he tears off his mask, his expression has never been clearer or more intensely determined. Even with all the blood running down his face.

One of the reasons I read Akira's dialogue options as multiplicity is bc of the moments the choices read better as one continuous thought than separate ideas. "That's enough!" and "I will stop you" are the same resolve in different keys.

And these moments of synergy clarify what being a "Wild Card" means for Akira. His senses of morality and personal responsibility are intrinsic, bedrock. They are so solid that the rest of him must be malleable in order to enact his justice, or even to survive under the thumb of people who'd see that rebellion crushed.

I fully believe that his glasses and general demeanor (that posture!!) are attempts to make himself invisible because he is so liable to pop-off in the face of injustice that someone responding to his judgmental expression with "what? you've got a problem?" is all it'd take for Akira to blow his own life up.

Akira's malleability and multiplicity are found in all the ways rebellion is possible. A person that is in all iterations himself.

MILD AKECHI SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HIS DEAL

Meanwhile, Akechi very obviously struggles with his sense of self. He has two masks and somehow fully immerses himself in both. 2 extreme survival mechanisms that only work if he can convince everyone, including himself, that this is all Akechi Goro is.

Akira wears a mask, performs as jack-of-all-trades, because his Self is so solid the problem comes from its reactivity with society at large. The conflict comes when others see it and try to make him bend, break, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Akechi has been in survival-mode so long his sense of identity outside his masks has nearly entirely atrophied.

Which is why he bites so hard when Akira's sharp eyes land on the beast and can't be redirected. Why his mask breaks when Akira pokes at his soft animal underbelly.

Akira wears glasses as a mask because his sharp gaze draws attention, I imagine his poker face is kinda shit. But Akechi has long since made himself into his own ringmaster. He directs the lights and attention towards beautiful, dangerous acts so no one's eyes ever land on the half-starved beast onstage that's often caged, always chained, and never truly hidden.

Hmm got entirely off track again but whenever I think about Akechi I black out and awaken hours later in an unfamiliar location, covered in blood.

MARUKI YOU ARE A JENGA TOWER. WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING DEAL