#anyway :<<< i love the goro analyses from u guys i just wanted to add my own bits to corroborate them

[petorahs]

hi! i’d also like to chime in because ‘no more what ifs’ as a possible key in understanding akechi and mementos mission ch 4.5 are some of my favourite p5 things ever. not kidding seeing these posts together made my brain go “!!” 

the chapter has akechi make a comparison between one’s shoes representing their personality, and he says this about his:

“your face reflected on them” definitely reads as “i can switch my personality to suit what you want to see” which definitely goes into the whole putting on several masks, lying, and overall deceitfulness of his entire being. 

but the chapter of course ends with the subtle, lingering question: who is the true goro akechi, stripped of all those lies? akechi’s own answer to that seems to be that he sees himself as nothing more than a vehicle for his revenge. if others can drive their own destiny on their own two feet, he remains too off-course to even consider standing next to them (he remains a prisoner of fate still). and he’s completely okay with that. anything to carry out his own brand of ‘justice’.  but that’s his take. the true goro akechi is still layers upon layers for the player to uncover through joker i feel. 

Your analyses give me a lot to think about. I finished P5R recently and am trying to spread the Akechi brainrot to someone else by playing it through with them. One thing that I constantly think about, and I guess it's a minor detail, is the the fact the Thieves' Den theme is a more upbeat version of No More What Ifs. It's interesting to me that it isn't other songs (i.e. how they use With The Stars and Us for Persona evolution/important moments as a leitmotif). If they wanted something more generally applicable, they could have used a version of Our Light, another variation of Beneath the Mask (like we don't have 10 billion of those), or some other common theme. It's stated at the beginning of the conversation that it's formed from Joker's/Akira's cognition specifically and represents all of his memories across time (since the Thieves' Den stays the same no matter which playthrough you're on). But the song is uniquely Akechi's, through the lyrics and how it's associated with him both in P5R and in other Persona media. It makes me think, why that song specifically? Why a more upbeat version of it? Another detail (and again might be unrelated) is that the first day the Thieves Den is accessible is the first time he appears (as Pleasant Boy). IDK I'm definitely overthinking it.

No such thing as overthinking on this blog, anon! AND OH SHIT IT'S THIS SONG. I have a feeling they only chose it because it's a nice easy listening piece, but on the other hand, it's definitely Akechi's song, isn't it? Am I, like, a bad fan if I say I never looked up the lyrics before? BECAUSE I AM HAVING A MOMENT:

I do not regret with my choices I'm rather proud ooh I know I won't change anything because I can only be me so

This isn't a line Akechi appears to use in the game, but that "I can only be me" line pops up in Mementos Mission, of course, and I'm going to go into it because I really love these two pages:

"I can only ever be me." Ren knows better, of course—look at his face. Give him a break, Akechi. And look at Akechi's face—he's lying, or he's deflecting. What just happened here?

Shido calls Akechi in, for some dubious reason. Ren asks him why he doesn't quit, knowing full well it's not the investigation team, and Akechi is like "nah bruh". And then he smiles, mask fully in place, and says "I can only ever be me". It's one of his double- or triple-edged statements—the "me" he is, of course, will happily lie and deceive and be any number of different people.

I wouldn't be surprised if this scene was based on the song.