#also i couldnt find a place to fit this in but i specifically mention Makoto's mother bc. BC... the movie....

[petorahs]

Hello! In your post about Makoto and Ken, you mentioned movie Ken is your favorite. As someone who’s only played the game, I was wondering what subtle differences there are between movie and game Ken?

hey there! I'm very honored and glad you asked cause I feel like movie Ken is an underrated aspect of his character because of one key substantial difference: He actually was close to Shinjiro and admired him... before learning the truth.

spoilers for Midsummer Knight's Dream!

In the games, it's clear that the catalyst for Ken joining SEES was after he found out Shinjiro was the killer of his mom right before summer vacation was to end and he was supposed to go back to his elementary school dorm. So, he entered SEES (in his eyes rightfully) hating Shinji and with the goal of getting strong enough to kill him. Shinjiro joins right after, Ken himself being his reason, and they literally never talk... the tension is so palpable! There's also this trifecta of sorts that the developers wanted to convey which is pictured above... how Ken admires Akihiko, while Aki admires Shinji, while Ken hates Shinji. the monorail scene in Full Moon, Full Life is symbolic for this.

The movie's take on it though.. provides a slight nuance to this.

In the movies, a handful of characters become narrative foils/parallels to further develop Makoto Yuki's character such as Chidori, Natsuki, Takaya, Pharos obviously, Fuuka, etc. But one that's always stuck out to me was Ken Amada.

Right off the bat, Mitsuru assigns Makoto as Ken's bodyguard because they "share similar backgrounds". Both are orphans who lost their parents to the Dark Hour. Ken is aimless at this point, wandering about during the Dark Hour to kill time. He declines living in Iwatodai dorm even. But then, he thinks he found out the killer of his mom is actually the shadows, specifically a large one with a hulking body and blond hair. This is during the attack on the shrine where Koromaru protects it (cool thing about the movies is that we see the actual moment Koro-chan fights, instead of just the aftermath this time!). Ken's resolve is made and he joins SEES to eradicate shadows. Akihiko looks away quietly in this moment. Shinjiro rejoins SEES except it was Strega that gave him the info that Ken joined. The tension is still palpable, except this time Ken is none the wiser.

Ken immediately takes to Shinjiro because Shinji protected him during a Full Moon attack. He's so strong, everything Ken wants to be. (Nevermind Shinji's own reasoning for jumping in was his brand of punishment...)

This brings me to my final point. It's no secret by now that my favorite is Makoto, and the way that Ken's words echo Makoto's own thoughts about his mom is so quietly tragic to me that provides a layer of depth to both their characters we never really get in the games. They were both driven by their own mothers' influence and deaths.

Life was not worth living after they were orphaned, but now, they can finally live again... recently in Reload the Ken and Makoto parallels I mentioned were that they basically share the same dread, and self-isolation tendencies but I like this sentiment in the movie that there's healing to be found in the little things again :( Makoto and Ken were both healing...

anyways uh. since this is Persona 3 we all know how this ends which I will not spoil because I really, really like what they did with Makoto and his role in Shinjiro's death in the movies (+ the aftermath of it) but! I'll leave with these insane af frames

This is after Ken finds out that the large shadow with a hulking body and blond hair was not, in fact, a shadow at all - but someone's Persona.