#can do things like misinform people that haven't played the old games about things

[invinciblerodent]

if you haven't already.... you should post that oc info for arvid 👀

Yay, an excuse, thank you! :D (Long ramblings under the cut!) (excuse the darkness of the screenshot, my laptop is currently angry with photoshop)

Arvid Trygg

Full Name: As above! Fun fact- "trygg" comes from the Old Norse "tryggr", and essentially means "faithful". It's my headcanon for the name children raised in the church get in that area if they don't have a last name of their own- a bit like the "John Snow" of Faerun. (His mom only told the monks to name him Arvid, but left no other information about herself or her desires for him, and was gone by the next morning. So for all intents and purposes, his full name is essentially "Bother Arvid", which as a warrior priest is what he was casually referred to as the most.)

Gender and Sexuality: Short answer, bisexual man. Long answer, if only he knew enough to figure it out. As of right now, he's... mostly confused? Because while he's fairly sure he's a man, having literally lived the past 35 years as a holy man, he didn't much think of sexuality in any context. He may have had some mild crushes here and there, but didn't really think further about any of them. Nowadays he's slowly realizing that actually, not only does his dick work (surprise of all surprises), he also doesn't much care about gender as much as personality, and is very attracted to earnestness and gentleness in people, even more if they don't try to hide it. (It's a lot of "baby's first attempts at flirting" with him.)

Pronouns: Most comfortable with he/him, but sees no reason to be bothered by they/them either. The beard mostly deters people from attempting she/her, so I don't think he has any feelings about that.

Ethnicity/Species: He was raised as- and thinks of himself as a gold dwarf, but technically, his dad was a duergar. His mother lived in a very conservative area and was very young when she had him, so she broke off any relationship with the father when she learned she was pregnant, and hid the pregnancy from everyone. She went to the nearest monastery to give birth, and when she saw the (then much more pronounced) blue hue of her son, she decided that the best thing she can do for him is to leave him there to be raised by the monks. That way he gets a roof that her father would deny them, a life away from people in the village pointing fingers at him, and she gets her life back. (Arvid doesn't blame her for any of this. He thinks it was unfortunate because he would have liked to know his parents, but it was nevertheless the right decision to make. His skin's greyish-blue has since faded into this slightly bluish, pale color.) (He blushes purple, you guys. Purple. So cute.)

Birthplace and Birthdate: About 1460 DR, in a Tempuran monastery near a small dwarven village in the Western Heartlands (quite a ways South from Baldur's Gate), making him roughly 35 at the events of the game.

Guilty Pleasures: I think even though he's not experienced with it, he just loves reading about romance. You know there's that unauthorized copy of that bawdy play ("A Pleasurable Deal") we can find in a certain area of the game? Yeah, he saved that book, AND the leaflet that's an interview with the author. That was the first piece of explicitly smutty literature he's ever had access to, and... yeah. While he doesn't announce that he likes romance, he definitely keeps the enjoyment of smut buried deep in the bottom of his pack.

Phobias: So far, I don't think he has any notable ones. I mean, he's definitely got a healthy aversion from a bunch of things and isn't the biggest fan of gross monsters, but few are. I've yet to find out his biggest fear, but so far I'm toying with something like... that dawning horror that you did something irreversible and irredeemably horrible out of misinformation? Though I don't know how to phrase that in a concise manner.

What They Would Be Famous For: This one remains to be seen, I'll update it once I'm actually done with the game lol.

What They Would Get Arrested For: Definitely trespassing. Maybe breaking and entering. Probably heard someone in distress and immediately went to them, the dingus.

OC You Ship Them With:

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: (these don't really apply I think)

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: After a lifetime of little besides holy texts, he's kind of a fan of anything that's... not that. But definitely a romantic at heart, and if they ever "accidentally" pick up a romance novel, it mysteriously evades the trash-pile for a few days at least.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: I'm gonna say it's the "it was all a dream, and not in the vision- or astral projection-way". He always prefers honesty and straightforwardness, it's always a bummer when he realizes someone wasn't entirely truthful about something. (He doesn't realize that often.)

Talents and/or Powers: Well, he's a rather talented soldier and cleric, but I'd say a talent specifically is how he can leverage that aura if necessary. Mechanically, he has proficiency in intimidation, but hardly ever uses it- I headcanon that he doesn't really like using threats to get his way and prefers to be nice and persuasive instead, but has this... way, of shifting his weight and voice that makes him seem like someone not to be trifled with. (Only uses it when the Vibes on he encounter are already Fetid.) He's also got a lot of domestic skills, from helping out around he monastery from a very young age. Remarkably good at peeling potatoes and chopping onions. Crochets cute scarves in the evenings. (He's... not SUPER great at that one, a long rectangle is about what he can make, but it's a really sweet gesture, they're warm, and they do look pretty darn cute.)

Why Someone Might Love Them: He's a very gentle soul that's very non-judgemental, and curious about everything- especially other people's faiths. To him, as long as you believe in something wholeheartedly and are willing to fight for it, it's an honorable belief, and an honorable fight. That's why he doesn't judge Shadowheart for her Shar-worship, why he understands Lae'zel's devotion to Vlaakith, why he was willing to try the ritual for Loviatar, and, yeah, why he feels for Gale so deeply on the whole Mystra-issue. (And, because he's definitely very much into Gale, just in general.)

Why Someone Might Hate Them: I feel like that honor is a double-edged sword in this way, in that because of it, he has a way of setting expectations very high for others, and feeling undue disappointment when they fall short of the expectations he imposed on them. As in, he's, on a deep level, very annoyed with Gale for just accepting that he's gonna have to blow up, because Arvid thinks of that as Gale having rolled over and just given up. One of the worst things one can do in Arvid's eyes is giving up without a fight. (Things were kind of tense between them for a few days after meeting Elminster. After the fussy attention Arvid showers everyone in as their healer, I think Gale definitely felt the slight chill in the air there.)

How They Change: It's still a bit in progress, but I think he'll grow to accept that there's a bit more to the world than fully right and fully wrong, even within the same action, and the same paradigm. The way he handled the githyanki egg is definitely a sign of that change- he balked at the request first, it seemed unthinkable that it could in any way be better for a young gith to be raised outside of their community, but... yeah, wiping out a crèche (leaving nobody left to take care of it) and finding a note that the egg was going to be destroyed changed his perspective on things. At small hours when he can't sleep, he still thinks about what's gonna happen to that githyanki (and when he handed it over, he did look at the others and say "I hope we're all in agreement that we're not going to tell Lae'zel about this.", which is... not a lie that leaves a good taste in his mouth.)

Why You Love Them: I mean, he's a good li'l upstanding lawful good cleric boy who thinks letting a vampire bite him is the same as providing healthcare, and makes his companions cute accessories to keep them nice and cozy. He's the dwarf dad(dy?) we all need, with a fantasy fanny pack full of fruit snacks. (Really, he does carry almost all their rations on the road. So technically, he does pass out the snacks. I imagine a short rest is pretty much a snack break.)

His mustache curving up like that also gives him a permanent little smile, which I think is adorable.

[flamelance-blog]

🔥

Eliwood/Ninian isn’t canon, as well a bunch of heavily implied ships from the older games. (Although ti’s definitely one of my favorite ships for them) Sometimes I’ll see people in the fe tag or on twitter or the subreddit refer to Ninian as if she was 100% his wife and that she is totally Roy’s mother and I think that’s unfair to people who are fans of Eliwood’s other ships.

Again, Ninian is just an example, it’s just she and Eliwood are the ship I see most mentioned when it comes to this.

[boredom-reigns]

Ken Amada : Character Introspection

Persona 3 and some P4:AU Spoilers!

Ken Amada is honestly one of my favourite Persona 3 characters. I know the way his character arc was handled was somewhat flawed (like when he basically doesn't matter after the closure of Oct. 4), but I still love him a lot nevertheless.

My main problem is honestly the fact that a lot of people in the fandom hate him so much it can get grating, especially if it's for nonsensical reasons (like him apparently being the cause of Shinjiro's death even though the person who shot the guy was right there).

I mean, not liking characters is fine. I respect other people's opinions. But spreading misinformation based on a misinterpretation of a scene is... yeah.

Note: These are my opinions and interpretations of his character based on P3 and P4:AU. Other opinions and interpretations are welcome!

First off, like most Persona characters, Ken's character is based off an archetype. Ken's archetype, you could say that it's based on the Adorably Precocious Child trope. He's acts too mature for his age, even trying to hide his childishness by denying the fact he watches Featherman and saying that he drinks black coffee.

But this maturity came at a cost. From the little glimpses of childishness that Ken has shown (for example, the movie showing event where he's basically jumping up and down in happiness because the superhero movie was so cool!) along with his reinforcement of the idea that no, he's capable even at 11 years old (one of his battle voice lines is "Don't underestimate me because of my age") makes me believe that he wasn't always like this. He was forced to mature due to circumstances or he forced himself to mature due to circumstances.

What was this circumstance?

Obviously, the death of his mom.

Ken's mom is a huuuggeee part of his life and basically affected him a lot. Her death made him what he was today. First is that he saw her get murdered right in front him. Of course he's going to be traumatised. Not only that, he had something to direct his anger and hatred to (I'll talk about that later).

But when he told people about what he saw, nobody believed him, obviously. But remember this, Ken was a kid. He was 9 at the time. And he was 100% sure that what he saw was real. When he was being basically labeled as a liar because everyone won't believe him and just treated him as some fragile, traumatised kid, he's going to lash out. He knew it was real yet everyone just thinks that he was lying. He didn't think that obviously no one would believe him because he was deep in grief and hatred. He wanted justice. But no one would help him because everyone's saying that it was an accident. And he hated that.

He had a target to hate, yet he was powerless to inflict punishment (his idea of "justice") on that target.

So he wanted to be capable. If no one's going to help him, then so be it. He'll do his own justice. So Ken forced himself to grow up. He forced himself to be more mature, copying the image of capability he believes in.

Another thing that possibly added to Ken forcing himself to mature is the way people treated him afterwards. To outsiders, he was a traumatised kid. Ken says in his conversation with Shinjiro that he just receives pity no matter where he goes and he hates that pity.

I've seen LPs where they're like "huh, but isn't that good?" to that line. Speaking as someone who has lost a loved one and dealed with other people who lost a loved one, expressing pity is a balancing act.

It's hard to express pity because people deal with grief differently and some people despise pity when they're grieving. Some people are of the mentality of "what use is your pity because it's not going to bring them back!". Being treated differently because you lost someone or being treated as some fragile person made of glass who's going to have a breakdown at any time is horrible. Moving on can be so hard when everyone is tiptoeing around you. And I think that's what Ken felt.

What Ken needed during his grieving was someone who would support him. Someone who believed in him. He didn't need someone who just stood along the sidelines and pitied him. He needed someone who actually approached him and bothered to listen. I feel like that was what Ken was looking for: someone to listen to him. Because everyone around him never listens and just calls him off as a liar. He had no support system whatsoever. He was staying alone in the elementary school dorm and from the convenience store bentos in his room that can be seen in P3D, you can infer that he was forced to take care of himself for 2 years. For 2 years, all he got was financial support and never the needed emotional support.

Because of this, he was left to internalise his grief which then evolved into hatred. He didn't have anybody anymore. There was no point in living for him because his mom, his light, was gone. No one else was there to give him a reason to live. No family, no friends, no one who believes in him. Ken felt that it was only him against the world.

So why should he keep on living?

And this is where the idea that he has a target enters in. This target of his hatred became his one and only purpose. Why? Because it was the only thing that was there for him. He had no one and nothing. The only thing he had in life was this target of his extreme hatred. The target for his justice. Giving the rightful punishment to this target became his only purpose in life to the point that after killing Shinjiro, he was going to kill himself. Ken's only reason to live was to kill Shinjiro for revenge.

As for his entire "Mom would've wanted this.", I feel like that's more of him trying to justify his actions. He had a target of his giref: Shinjiro. He wanted to kill Shinjiro because Shinjiro killed his mom. But murder is a very daunting task. Even Ken hesitated. I feel like he just justified himself with "Mom would've wanted this." so he can do it. Because killing Shinjiro is the only thing left in life for him. It's the only thing he can do now. He had no reason for living other than Shinjiro's death. So he tried to justify it so he would be able to get through doing it and to give him more reasons as to why he should really do it and not hesitate.

On October 4, it was an utter disaster especially when Takaya (*cough* Shinjiro's real killer *cough* people who keep insisting that Ken is the killer) arrived. At this part, Ken finds out about Shinjiro's drug deal. He loses his shit because he finds out that Shinjiro's going to die early anyway no matter what he does. Killing Shinjiro at this point felt like knocking someone who was already down. It had no point. And because killing Shinjiro had no point, Ken's entire purpose for living had no point. So... He had no purpose.

And this was why Ken went "I have no reason to live."

Other things we can actually see on October 4 is that Ken does care about SEES. He joined SEES with ulterior motives but in the end, he cares. He pretended that he was the navigator to make sure that Takaya won't find out about Fuuka and that Takaya would target him. The time he spent in SEES was most likely the most emotional support he got (and that's kinda sad because SEES is like the most dysfunctional party out of all the Persona games (except maybe P2:EP?)). He got people who saw the same things he saw, people who understood him. He got people who actually bothered to talk to him and listen. Heck, you can even bring him to the movies which I'm sure is great because who knows how long has that kid haven't seen a movie or had fun. There's people who actually don't treat him with so much pity. That fact that you can bring him to Tartarus, I think he's glad about that because he's not underestimated. Ken was respected in SEES as an equal and he appreciated it.

After the entire Oct. 4 shenanigans, Ken has learned to look into himself. He realized his mistakes, his deep hatred blinding him, but most of all, he found a reason to live. He finally moved on, and decided to live as that was what his mom and Shinjiro would've truly wanted.

Then fast forward to P4:AU we can see that he's indeed living. He's pretty much the most popular guy in school, he's in Student Council, and he's even in the soccer club. But he can't fully live yet.

If you've P3 episode of P4:AU, you'd play the Ken vs Shadow Ken part which actually reveals a lot about post-P3 Ken. If you haven't, watch it here.

Ken can't be 100% content with his current life. He feels fake, being a child again, going to school normally and having friends his age to talk and laugh with. This is because of how much his past has destroyed his childhood. He was forced to mature, forced to see things his age shouldn't see, forced to experience things that he shouldn't experience that age. No one his age could understand. They were too innocent while the ones who could understand him (SEES) were too old.

An interesting thing about his entire image post-P3 is that he was basically the "ideal student". He was handsome, smart, athletic, responsible, etc. It makes me wonder if he got that image because it was what he thought was what living was (which his mom and Shinjiro wanted) or because that was what people expected of him. I can see him trying to be more of a child because people expected him to be lighter as the entire Tartarus-Nyx dilemma was gone. I can also see him forcing himself to be more of a child as he feels the obligation to take back the childhood he lost. But that's it, he forced himself. He's not content because for him, he's fake.

Ken's fake he only wanted to fight and this affects him. I think he wanted to fight because that felt the closest to his true self: who he was when he was with SEES. He wanted to help the Shadow Operatives because it was the only environment he can be 100% honest to himself. No pretending that he had a normal life. It was living as him, with people who knew him. In the end, it circles back to the point that he finds fighting Shadows as a purpose to live.

This chapter also showed that Shinjiro still affects him. He blames himself for what happened on October 4, with his monologues saying that he committed a mistake in relation to Shinjiro's death. Shinjiro is an important person to him and his death was very much impactful.

Then Ken fights his fake, where he says that he's been "conceited" and "didn't understand anything at all". I take this as a point of enlightenment for him. What he didn't understand was "living". He followed a mold that be felt he should follow. He thought that he could only feel true to himself by only fighting supernatural creatures. He realised that he wasn't truly living at this point. He thought he understood that he was living like how his mom and Shinjiro wanted but he wasn't. He was still stuck in the past.

This was why I loved his epilogue. In his epilogue, he decides to quit the Shadow Operatives. He decides that it was time for him to move on from their dark past and continue living, not only for his mom and Shinjiro, but also for himself. He thinks that it was better for him this way. He gets to regain his childhood.

His fangirls notice that he's become less distant and more warm to approach, showing signs that he's beginning to open up to people. Despite the fact that he can never tell people about the whole Shadows and Personas, he can still make new bonds. He doesn't have to be stuck on one bond.

This doesn't mean he's abandoning SEES. He still recognises his string bond with them, one might even say that they're family at this point. But just because he has a bond with them doesn't mean he should only restrict himself to them. He can make new, true bonds that aren't fake.

He finds out how to truly live. He just enjoys the moment and finally lets go, showing his inner child.

Ken's character is all about the purpose of life. Because even if life is so hard it feels like death, there's always a reason to live. Even if you can't find your purpose to live now, you will find it someday.