#it was like akechi and akira and sumire was also there so story could happen | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

naehja · 1 year ago

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Headcanon ask

C'est plus facile en submit que en ask, alors c'est parti ! :D

Hetalia - Francis (parce que je me sens nostalgique) : ☆ ▼

Persona 5 Royal - Morgana : ☾ ∇ ; Akira/Ren (protagoniste) : ♡ ♥

Ace Attorney - Phoenix : ♒ൠ ; Kristoph Gavin : ★ ▼

Voili Voilou^^ !

Heyyy =)

Hetalia - Francis (parce que je me sens nostalgique) : ☆ ▼

☆ happy headcanon

Nothing make him more happier than cooking for his loved one. Even with not a lot of things, he can make delicious dish for everyone. Something people defy him to make a dinner with some ingredients. Well that's too much a cooking headcanons.

Anyways he also loves pretenting to be a history nerd in some cities, speaking with tourists and stuff like that.

▼ childhood headcanons

1) The first time he meets Rome, he stabbed him in the leg with a stick.

2) He was very close of Antonio, maybe more that from the other Children of Rome.

3) Baby Feliciano thought that Roma Galia was his big sister.

Persona 5 Royal - Morgana : ☾ ∇ ;

☾ - sleep headcanon

His bed is Akira's Bed. End of story. The beloved one of Ren/Aira WILL have to share. But whatever who is it in the phantom, Sumire or Akechi, they are fine to share, even if Akechi bickers a lot with the cat. He is very good anti-nightmares for Ren.

He also love to sleep on Akira's knees, in his bag, ect....

He can be a real gremlins.

∇ -. old age/aging headcanon

Funny thing. He has been made for Akira/Joker, so he doesn't' age like a normal cat. He ages in the same rythm than Akira and will die with him.

It's a magic cat who speaks after all. (ok not everyone can understand him but still)

So he live VERY long for a cat and people just think that Akira is so much attached to Morgana that he always earch a kitten who look like his old cat and give him the same name. Akira doesn't deny because that's give him a excuse to not justify that he has the same cat since years.

Akira/Ren (protagoniste) : ♡ ♥

♡ - romantic headcanon

He's a very romantic guy, the hype to plan his date for days. He's very caring and attentionate. He's extremely loyal and protective.

He has always good idea for a date, like if he was reading in his/her mind.

(Also Morgana always hide in his bag when he goes to a date)

♥ - family headcanon

His parents were kinda neglectful, almost never at home, kinda controlling when they were at home. They kinda renied Ren/Akira when he go into probation. And they have never contacted him while he was a Tokyo. When he go home, they accepted that he keeps Morgana but he started to search a appartement to live alone with his cat. And he really REALLY missed the attic of Leblanc.

When he'll have his own family, he'll be as much present than possible, give space to his kids if they need it, will be very protective. He'll be the cool dad who can be stern if needed.

Ace Attorney - Phoenix : ♒ൠ ;

♒ - cooking/food headcanon

He was no bad in cooking before, since he as used to live alone and wanted to keep a good health.

He started to make some efforts when he has started to team up with Maya because if he had not done it, she would eat only hamburgers or ramens. ("no maya, having different meat or flavor doesn't change a lot") Maya then asked him if he could make Ramens or Hamburgers, he said that yes he could, but he will not cook only that ("it's for your well being Maya"). He makes even more efforts when Pearl was coming to eat with them.

And when he adopted Trucy? He started to make EVEN more efforts. He buyed books about foods and good recipes. And he became very good.

ൠ - random headcanon

He has had nightmares about Dahlia for months (years).

He stays on a polite relation with Isis, visiting her in jail, and sending her letter time by time, but his feelings for her are just the ones of a friend. He goes at the monastery one time with Pearl and Trucy to do some camping. Sister Bikini was happy to spoil the girls.

People are kinda scared of his kinda invincibility (i mean look at everything happened to him)

Miles send newbie prosecutors who are a little to arrogant against Phoenix like a kind of....way to calm their arrogance?

Phoenix is very good in mind game.

Kristoph Gavin : ★ ▼

★ - sad headcanon

....ok i admit, he sees him like a selfish psychopath ready to do ANYTHING to reach his goals (manipulation, murders, ect) (i mean seen what he did to Vera), and so i have hard time to see him being sad

But let's say that he has been hurt to see Klavier teaming with Apollo (and so with Phoenix) against him.

▼- childhood headcanon

One day, at halloween, he lost Klavier in the street because he didn't want to hold his hand and blame his little brother for that by saying "he didn't listen to me" to their parents.

He tried music, but has never been as good than Klavier.

#Klavier Gavin #Phoenix Wright #France (Aph)#francis bonnefoy #Morgana (persone 5)#akira kusuru #Ran Amamiya #ren amamiya #Morgana #Joker #Ace Attorney #Hetalia #Persona 5

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cherubchoirs · 2 years ago

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my take on Akechi in Strikers is admittedly, partially because it rubs me wrong for him to not at least tell Akiren he's alive at the end of Royal if he could,

so I'm partial to him being stuck in the metaverse after the engine room and EMMA finding him while rummaging through the mass unconscious for old mementos blueprints and what not lol

anyway I just like the thought of her being like '????' and deciding hell with it, another monarch for another jail with a keyword she seeds into online forums/sites about him

and then Sumire and/or Maruki find out about him and have to help him get out since the Phantom Thieves are obviously busy

(Maruki admittedly is mostly there because 1) Maruki probably feels guilty he couldn't help Akechi before 2) if they can have conversations through the trauma doors I just picture Akechi giving Maruki SO much grief while they're trying to figure out how to get it down lol)

OOH i like this!! first, i also agree that it would be...not great for goro to just decide to leave akira in the dark. i can see how that might happen for so many reasons, but if he could i think he would at least let him know he was still alive, even if he didn't give him any contact information or say anything further. but trapped in the metaverse is super interesting to me and obviously gives him the best excuse possible lol

additionally, i really like the inclusion of maruki here bc tbh....TBH....he really didn't do enough at the end of the story to make up for how much he truly messed with these kids. i don't believe maruki is at all a bad person; in fact, i think he's overly kind and a bleeding heart, but his grief twisted him immensely to the point that he did real harm to a group of kids that have already been through hell. i think he rationalized it by believing they would forget it all and achieve real happiness in his utopia...but as that utopia never came to pass, the damage he did was never undone and i would really like to see how he reckons with that since he actually hates to see suffering. and so just. the idea that goro's jail could showcase both of their characters, have growth for maruki and truly take a deeper dive into what goro's been through, sounds really interesting imo

#me: continues to add more characters into p5s #look i just really love the idea of maruki redeeming himself #also SERIOUSLY to sumire and everything she went through #give that poor girl more closure on all of that #and just the thought of those two with goro...NEW royal trio lmao #cake answers #p5s

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setsuntamew · 3 years ago

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So, Persona 5 Royal, huh?

Full disclosure: I had gotten about halfway through November on Wednesday and finished it out Saturday night, which took uhhh about 65-70 hours? Some of that was sitting there waiting for the PS4 controller to recharge or listening to music in the Thieves Den while eating, but I still feel like I need to own up to how extremely bad I am at making good decisions with my life XD

MOVING ON, THOUGH, HOLY SHIT. P5 was a very good game, but Royal’s additions & changes made it incredible. I like the ending way more; I think it’s more emotionally fulfilling and meaningful, especially with everyone’s more defined future plans. Definitely felt like everyone had more growth in the end!! Which is something I’d always thought P5 was lacking.

Snip snip for spoilers and the fact that this post ended up being too damn long, oops! the last third is basically Akechi feels and analyzing his ending, so......yeah XD

Part of why I plowed through SO much of Royal in so little time is....Akechi XD Like okay, this is my stupid fandom blog, I can be excited about him all I want!!! I got to Sae’s Palace and just....I couldn’t put it down. @dragonofeternal and I ordered an embarrassing amount of takeout instead of cooking because we just had to see how everything with Maruki and the third semester was gonna go down. I’d already been dying along the way because Akechi’s confidant dates are so good, I just. Fuck!!!

Also, look, for the entirity of Shido’s boss fight and the depths of Mementos/Yaldabaoth/etc, we’d look at each other every few minutes and just be like AKECHI SHOULD BE HERE WITH US, HE DESERVES TO GET HIS VENGEANCE ON HIS SHITTY DAD AND FORCED DESTINY!!!!!

December 24th had to be the longest god damn day in Akira’s life because like. Final exam grades are posted in the morning! He goes to school and then dives into hell, crawls his way back out, briefly dies by fading from human cognition, fights an actual fucking god, and then....ends up dissociating in Shibuya until Sae shows up and is like “oh hey thanks for everything you did, please sign up for being arrested now.” And while he’s still reeling from that, Akechi walks up to take his place, like some kind of bullshit knight in shining armor schtick, and leaves no room for conversation.

AND THEN WE HAVE TO GO ON A DATE

I romanced Hifumi this time around, because I wanted Akria to bang a girl who is just so incredibly out of his league, but....it’s not necessarily that I forgot I was dating someone, more that it had been *so many hours of plot* that I was emotionally exhausted. Like, Hifumi texted me and I was just like. Right. RIGHT. It’s still Christmas Eve, somehow. I was at *school* this morning. The whole world merged with Mementos briefly in the middle of this, Akechi is somehow alive, and I guess I’m going on a date now????

I do appreciate how many “god I’m just dissociating my way through this” conversation options there were for the date, tbh. I feel bad though, I really like Hifumi, but I feel like Akira is not giving a date his full emotional attention at that specific time. It feels a bit like emotional whiplash, more so than I remember it being in P5? Maybe it’s because I played it 4 years ago and there wasn’t the added emotional weight of Akechi’s reappearance, but it was just like....a lot, in Royal.

AND THEN THE NEW YEAR HAPPENED. I’d been spoiled on large parts of the third semester, mostly because Royal’s been out for a year already and I’m too curious for my own good. I’d also somehow lied to myself, saying I didn’t have time to play another Persona game right now, and yet here I am, 171 hours of game play within exactly a month, kicking myself for not knowing how deep in Persona hell I would get XD

Which is to say, as soon as the new year started, it felt I was drowning in anxiety. I knew something was wrong, I knew they were in a false reality, but knowing that sure as fuck didn’t make it easier to go through. If anything, it was somehow worse, knowing that it was all gonna come crumbling down, but I didn’t yet know the exact details, only the broad strokes of it. Just. Every time someone talked about something that was wrong, my heart would clench.

God, I’m so fucking tired, I pulled an all-nighter on Friday so I could get through Royal before having to work on Sunday, and I am feeling it right now. Life tips: don’t do what I do XD

Every moment with Akechi felt like borrowed time, at least for me, because I knew what was coming. I spent so much time in Mementos with him; I ended up putting just him and Akira in my party and plowing through everything, including trouncing the Reaper over and over just for the hell of it. I got his ultimate weapons, I spent so many nights in the jazz club with him that he ran out of dialogue options, and I still took him back for more. I accidentally failed to EVER trigger Sumire’s Showtime because every fight was just Akira and Akechi against the world, because fuck it, I’m playing this for fun!! If I want to play with them in stupid costumes and no one else in the party, I’m gonna. Royal did such an incredible job giving Akechi more depth and development: it was all I could hope for, and it made it that much fucking worse to know what was in store for him.

Somehow, I thought it would be harder for me to make the decision to refuse Maruki’s deal, since fuck, fuck what I wouldn’t give for Akechi to be alive???? But I barely hesitated, only really stopping because I had to emotionally brace myself for it, because a reality where he can’t carve out his own fate would be a disrespect to everything their relationship is built on.

I have a whole shit ton of feelings about post-beating Maruki but they’re basically all Akechi related meta so somehow they ended up at the end of this post, I’m sorry XD

I understand that they had to keep the going to jail bit because 1) Akechi didn’t turn himself in, Akira did and 2) it leads to the final events of the game, but let me just say....the emotional roller coaster of fighting Maruki, almost failing multiple times, waking up in jail, the Phantom Thieves & friends getting Akira out of jail, celebrating that, and then getting thrown into Valentines Day was a LOT for my heart to take. Once again, didn’t forget I had a girlfriend, just got too invested in the plot to really be thinking about her. It’s less than two weeks after the fight with Maruki and somehow, everything is supposed to be okay????

The scene with everyone talking about their future plans is such good character growth, though. Everyone feels like they’ve truly grown and are making decisions that, even though they might be painful or hard at times, are ultimately very important to them. It’s a really good contrast to the “almost everyone goes to Shujin and they all stay in Tokyo forever without doing anything for themselves” Maruki’s perfect reality bad end.

Standing in the Underground Mall on White Day, being told I had to get flowers but finally being able to have control of Akira again was....so bittersweet. The fact that the location of the date is the aquarium is a low fucking blow, and I almost threw the controller across the room I was so upset. Like. THE AQUARIUM IS UNLOCKED BECAUSE AKECHI HAS TICKETS HOW FUCKING DARE SOJIRO SUGGEST IT LIKE MY HEART ISN’T STILL ACHING????? God, speaking of that: The fucking god damn Featherman video game tore my heart out because I ended up playing it WHILE WORKING ON SHIDO’S PALACE and I cried a ton about Gray Pigeon because of course they had to dig the emotional knife in even deeper!! Just fuck me up, it’s fine, I’m just dying!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ended up scrolling through his texts to find the group chats that still had Akechi in them, and fuck, it was a LOT. Like. Maybe it’s because I’m too invested in the two of them, but it was probably the worst emotional whiplash of the whole game. Like, how am I supposed to go play happy with anyone while staring at texts from a reality built of lies? It wasn’t real but the proof lives on in his phone and his heart, and I’m still fucked up over it.

HOWEVER. FUCKING. I SPENT LIKE HALF AN HOUR BEING EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED ABOUT ALL THIS AND THEN DISCOVERED THE BASTARD STILL HAD ALL HIS EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING THE ULTIMATE MALE ARMOR!!! He returned his shit after Sae’s Palace even though he thought Akira was dead, but this time it didn’t get fucking returned to my inventory, so he must have fucking run off with all his shit!!!!!!! Why the hell did none of it get returned if he was never alive in the true reality? Like I know it'll be returned for a new game+ but I like to nitpick game mechanics for story reasons, because one of the things I love most about video games is the experience of them as another layer to the story. The texts from the third semester shouldn’t exist anymore, since they never really existed, but there they are. Akechi insisted that he has a gap in his memory after Shido’s Palace up until seeing Akira on Christmas Eve, but who can say that wasn’t related to Maruki tampering with reality or some other Persona-related reason?

I mean. I got the full and complete True Ending; I saw him in the train station. If that’s not Akechi, then who the fuck is it? Atlus made sure to put the work in to make him a part of not just the main story but also, especially, the third semester, and for what....to have his final time on screen be as the butt of the joke, squished underneath everyone in the Mona-copter? As much as it hurts, his end in Shido’s Palace matters; it fits his character and he gets to go out fighting- carving his own path, really. In Royal, barring the tiny glimpse of someone who’s probably him in the train station, the last we see of him is when he watches Joker let go of the rope to finish off Maruki. I know we got the heart to heart where Akira agrees to reject Maruki’s deal and Akechi insists that he’d rather be dead than live in a false reality, but.....no one even says goodbye to him. It’s tragic, it’s painfully lonely, but it doesn’t feel right for such a major character.

Also, as undignified as it is, for the first time ever, Akechi looks like he actually belongs in the Phantom Thieves in that final moment. He’s never been the butt of their jokes before; they always kept him at arms’ reach and he took himself too seriously to be included, but for that brief moment, it really felt like he was part of their group. He stopped lying about himself for their last month together, and so even if they don’t all like him, they can make that decision based on the truth, instead of layers of lies. His death is all the more tragic for this; a life cut short just when he’s finally finding a place he belongs. But his death was already painful; why make it so, so much worse?

Final thing: I’m gonna be spending a ton of time in the Thieves Den trying to find Akechi’s opinions on everything, but also....hey. HEY. What do those six stars that Jose (probably?) painted on the wall mean? Is it just a reference to Persona 6???? LIKE????? I HAVE QUESTIONS. SO, SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!!

Anyway, I’ve gotta go cry into my Starbucks and desperately try to focus on actually doing my job at work, but I loved Royal deeply and cannot wait to drown in it ;w;

#persona 5 royal #p5r #persona 5 royal spoilers #goro akechi #akeshu #I have just so many Akechi feels I'm sorry #long post #persona 5 royal meta

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tricksheart · 3 years ago

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I just read a post in where someone just claims Akira wasn’t immune to the whole actualization from Maruki just because he was a wildcard and while it may be true, that isn’t the only reason why he could had broken out of the reality.

Akira, in all his life, had been betrayed. Either by his parents, caretaker, the woman he saved, Akechi, Yaldabaoth / Fake Igor, society in general. Mostly, he is not trusting to anyone, least alone adults. Most had to get to know him, unlike Maruki who would befriended him right away, despite Akira’s track record and rumors. So when Maruki outs himself in November, knowing everyone including Akira was dealing with cognitive science aka being Phantom Thieves, it comes as a shock. Even Akira asks Maruki what his goal is. He is highly on alert here and even Maruki jokes to him if there is a problem then steal his heart like the others he has faced. Of course, they go their separate ways but reality now seeps in and places doubt. This is where Maruki’s motives and intentions are put into place. No matter how you look at it, what Maruki did was wrong on so many levels. Now came into question about the other’s sessions and what kinds of things did Maruki weasel out of them as well.

A shattered image / finding out Maruki was a false idol is what help Akira get out of being totally actualized by Maruki’s powers. Not to mention that the doctor was just Yaldabaoth with a different coat of paint. And what makes Akira tell his friends not to apologize to him, it’s because he failed to mention Maruki’s true goals and intentions. Perhaps if he told someone, everyone besides him wouldn’t had given Maruki the power in the first place. Which happened on the 1st, not December 24th, because the thieves effectually shut down Mementos until Maruki revived it as in his journal entries. I think the original poster just wanted to make Akira less of a cool character or the main character for that matter by just saying that he’s a wildcard, when we all know that’s not true because Tatsuya was able to remember things or go to different realities and he was the SUN arcana. Circumstances are always different and just implying that just because Akira was a wildcard, he was able to break free is just utter nonsense.

Also, the thieves themselves knew the reality was wrong and just didn’t do anything about it, just like with Akira in the bad / stay ending. They knew it was wrong but didn’t want to risk security by trading it with freedom and the truth of their original reality. They got their personas through trauma, where Akira got his by saving someone. So if they opened up their eyes again to the truth, all that pain would come back and that’s something they didn’t want to risk, not even for Akira / one person until later, effectively trapping themselves by their own volition (which is exactly what happened in Strikers with the Monarchs ).

In all, I hate that Royal even made it so that Akira couldn’t had done all those stunts in the MetaVerse without help from someone and his mental capacity also. They really nerfed my character in this updated version and really, it’s sad and unfair at times. No wonder I prefer the Original Vanilla to this story. Sumire was the only good thing to come out of the newer version besides the updated gameplay. Anyways, this got long but I wanted to get this off my chest ever since I saw that post in the Persona 5 tags.

#long post: tw #meta;;#about;;#okay to reblog from me;;#[ It’s Akira / Joker loving hours. OOC ]#sorry I am just heated at that post a little;;#got to get it out of my system;;

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kareofbears · 4 years ago

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How could I give Akechi a redemption arc in my fanfic?

whoa this is such a fun question I'm going to be sitting on my floor for awhile ok OK LETS GO

sweeping this under the cut since, wow, it’s long

first off, thanks for asking me! I'm surprised, since I'm not really an akechi blog but by god do i have a lot to say about him. second thing to note--obviously this is all my opinion, etc

so, to me, akechi is an irredeemable character, but there’s a little asterisk to that because he’s an irredeemable character in what canon presented to us. this is due to three things:

No redemption arc

He didn’t want a redemption arc AKA no guilt and no desire to change who he is or even just regretting his actions

The people who were affected by his horrible actions are still in the process of grieving and are still being affected by it every day

In order to give akechi goro a full redemption arc, we need to solve these three aspects of what made/makes him a bad person.

while it’s completely possible to fix smaller aspects of his character in a short fic if that’s what you were looking for, i think that a full-fledged fic is what you need if you want to fully redeem akechi. like, I'm talking a fairly chonky word count. it would take a lot to solve those three issues, so you do need to devote a lot of words to do that.

and before i actually start suggesting some solutions, i want to make it clear: i think that you should stick to akechi’s canon personality as close as possible while you’re writing redemption arc. i say that because often times I've seen fic authors make akechi toothless, and nicer, but the thing is if you want to make a redemption arc for this ireedemable character you have to keep the aspects that made him ireedemable in the first place. obviously, fic authors should do whatever the fuck they want, but for a redemption arc, i think you should stick very close to akechi’s personality in p5/r

okay lets actually get to it. to make things easier to digest, I have made *jenny Nicholson voice* a numbered list!

part one: no redemption arc

you’re already nailing problem number 1, but let’s talk about the format of a redemption arc! while there are endless exceptions, you’re PROBABLY doing akechi’s arc in one of three ways:

he’s forced to work with them/be around them/etc and he finds something in himself: the desire to be redeemed.

this is a tough one and i assume this is the one you’re writing but i could be wrong! the reason this is tough is because you have to write akechi wanting to be redeemed. and this is hard because he’s a fucking bastard! but the very nature of his bastard-ness is what makes a redemption arc so so compelling.

a redemption arc is almost like an enemies to lovers trope where you have to force the Bad Person to be around the one that they want to be redeemed by (Let’s say the Phantom Thieves, even though i don't know the premise of your fic).

For formatting, you have to establish why he’s a bad person (but you don’t really need to put that much effort into it since the audience already knows why), force them to work together so they can all get to know each other better, create an environment/insert a scene that forces them all to work together so that the PTs understand that “wow akechi’s really wanting to change! I thought he was lying”, have some more scenes together where they bond without realizing it, have a climactic scene where they’re all realizing their worth and they work together like a team for real, and happy ending (i hope.)

but remember! somewhere in the beginning, akechi must have the realization that he actually wants to be better, and the PTs must have see him being better or at least trying to.

AND, i don’t know how huge or grandiose your fic is going to be in terms of plot, but plot is super useful in redemption arcs because it forces the PTs to focus on something that isn’t akechi’s horribleness. the plot is supposed what drives the redemption arc, it’s what makes them keep akechi rather than just kick them out. if you’re doing a more “set in reality” fic, you can have one of the phantom thieves to want to keep akechi around and that can be the plot--if you want. that’s only a suggestion as to why they would want to keep akechi around despite hating him.

he is feeling guilty/had a bit of a change of heart so now he’s working to gain their forgiveness

easy peasy! you already got the biggest hurdle over with, which is find a reason why akechi would even want to be redeemed. everything else is the same, except now it’s probably a little easier on you! go you!

he gets redeemed by accident

now this is kinda funny, but it’s still the same formatting as my first point: he’s there with the PTs, accidentally gets to know them and be known in return, they work together and see each others values, he learns what he did is wrong but this time it matters because he cares about them, he unintentionally tries to make it up to them, the climax comes around and they work together, and happy ending.

formats don't really matter, but they personally help me think of the grand scope of things without needing the smaller details :)

part two: he didn’t want a redemption arc

i kinda already talked about that in part one, but really this is a driving factor. if we’re sticking to canon, why does he want to be redeemed? what changed? because there has to be a change, no matter how close we want to stick to canon. you have to justify the reasonings behind this because if you forget the motivation of akechi’s journey, it might end up being hollow and incomprehensible

in nearly every action that akechi takes, it must be towards redemption (unless these are the early stages). but hey, as per usual, there’s an exception: akechi can have a withdrawal of some sort.

this would be great actually, because it’s more realistic than just having a perfect line to redemption that’s unwavering. this is called the third act slump--the plan failed, everyone is sad, etc. this is to raise the stakes of the story, remind the audience what would happen if everything “went back to normal”, and also show the characters are not perfect and they can actually fail.

but, and this is just me, i hate the third act slump. hate it!! it makes me sad!!! so it’s really up to you whether or not you want to do it.

part three: the people affected

now, this is the part where you have to bust ass as a writer, because this is the real reason why akechi’s irreedemable--he did a lot of bad fucking shit. he killed two of the thieves’ parents, loads of other people, actually very nearly killed akira. like. no. that's horrible. it’s iredeemably horrible. i hate him actually. and so does everyone else in the thieves.

this is the part of the ask where i can’t really help you. it’s up to you how you want to fix it, because there’s so many ways you can do this. you can have them forgive him, not forgive him. they can punch him and not feel better, they can give him the cold shoulder.

that’s why i think sumire works so well with akechi--she doesn’t have any of the baggage that the thieves have towards akechi.

but hey, just cause it’s hard doesn’t mean its impossible! it really depends on what you want to do and how to do it. it depends on your characterization of who akechi is, who akira is, who futaba is, and who haru is since those are the people affected the most.

but i think I'm finally done here. that was super long, but i hope you found that helpful in some way! :)

#holy fuck that took awhil #that took an hour #but that was fun #are you guys proud?#i barely roasted akechi in this one #ask #asks

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violet--crown · 4 years ago

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The Supposed Audience Surrogate And His Confidants

I believe that Ren (/Akira/Joker/Inmate/Haremfucker249/Whatever you want to call him) is a much more interesting character than the game presents him as in the Confidants. Although he does have his moments, in the Confidants he serves to be the shoulder to cry on for all the characters and through player choice reflects back to them what they want to see. Although this is never truly elaborated on, I do think it’s very interesting, but it doesn’t change the fact that in the Confidant routes Ren is reduced to a boring audience surrogate. I do believe he can both be explored as a character in the Confidant routes while also being careful with his words to make others like him. I want to examine how the Confidants could potentially be altered to make Ren less of a brick wall and to make the relationships feel more two-sided.

The except to the rule is the Justice Confidant. When paired with Akechi, Ren truly gets to shine as a character.

(P5R Spoilers Ahead)

Justice

Akechi’s Confidant stands out from the others. All the Confidants follow a similar pattern where the subject of the Confidant has to struggle with an internal and/or external conflict (usually both). Ann and Makoto are two good examples. Ann’s internal struggle is with finding her inner strength and drawing strength from those around her and the external conflict focuses on her job as a model and Mika’s antagonistic interference. Makoto struggles to find direction in her life when she’s no longer following anyone else’s plan and the external conflict is helping Eiko.

Akechi can’t follow this pattern. The external conflict, getting revenge on Shido is interwoven into the plot so that it can't be solved in their Confidant. And his myriad of personal issues also can’t be solved if the plot is to progress. So a problem arises: What is the focus of Akechi’s Confidant? And the solution is the relationship between him and Ren, which will later become vital to the plot in Royal and makes Yaldabaoth’s plan a lot more interesting and tragic. While Akechi is better fleshed out as a character in his Confidant, it’s not the sole focus; one primary focus is the relationship between him and Ren and it can’t exist if it’s one-sided. Ren has to be an active member in their relationship or the premise of their Confidant falls apart. We see that Ren is extremely perceptive, being able to pick up that Akechi is using his non-dominant hand when playing billiards after only meeting him once. Another important trait is his confidence and competitive streak. While him being cocky is established in the first scene of the game, his competitiveness is something established in the justice Confidant. All these traits draw the two together. As I just mentioned, Ren plays a very active role, while (as is in character for both of them) Akechi does most of the speaking, Ren is not just a brick wall listening to him walk. Ren forces the disguise on Akechi, showing he is not afraid to poke bears with sticks. He challenges Akechi, not wanting him to go easy on him in their billiards matches. And most obviously their debates on The Phantom Thieves, the thing that draws them together in the first place. Their relationship is filled with conflict which grows to be more serious as Yaldaboath’s plan comes into action, but it’s clear they care about each other. The importance of their relationship is part of what motivates Akechi to sacrifice himself and it’s what makes Ren’s ultimate wish for Akechi and him to “have a fresh start together,” according to Maruki. It’s clear their relationship has a profound effect on both characters and means a great deal to each even if there are clearly conflicting and complex feelings. This is only possible because both parties are equally involved without Akechi being the only focus.

Akechi and Ren hold a mirror to each other and their traits are explored through their similarities. One of the most interesting aspects explored is that of a dual identity. For Akechi this is extremely overt with the detective prince persona masking the bitter orphan who paradoxically craves both revenge and love. For Ren, this is a lot more subtle. His fake glasses are a symbol of his mask. He uses them to appear less threatening and make himself blend into a crowd. While this is nowhere near as extreme as Akechi’s facade, similarly to Akechi he does don a persona (you know what I mean) to make himself appear more presentable and to shed the bad reputation that’s been unfairly attached to him. He also hides the more passionate side of himself, the side he shows off when he’s allowed to be Joker. Their relationship is very dynamic, switching from argumentative to childish to serious to fun to antagonistic to caring. This relationship between them can’t exist if Ren is not playing an active role.

While their Confidant is easily my favourite, I don’t actually believe every Confidant should mirror theirs. The pattern exists for a reason and each Confidant does tell an interesting story. Additionally having every Confidant be like theirs could lessen the impact of Maruki’s final offer in the third semester. So if that’s the case, then what needs to change? I think Ren as a character needs to be able to shine through more often in the Confidants and at least one trait or aspect of his character should be explored.

The Hierophant

Sojiro is great. You’ve played the game (I’m assuming) so you know this. And Sojiro is a great dad. But how many kids does he have? That’s the real question. Ren—at the start of the game, when first under Sojiro’s custody—is not his son. Sojiro is simply his legal guardian for a temporary amount of time. But this changes over the course of the game… kinda. Ren hangs awkwardly at the side of the Sakura family, not quite a part of it but not not a part of it either. Multiple times the player has the option to have Ren refer to Futaba as his sister or as family, but she also has a romantic route. This leaves their familial status in a very awkward liminal space.

It’s clear Ren sees Sojiro as more of a parent than his own biological parents, even if Sojiro can’t keep custody. At the start of the game, Sojiro recaps what happened, telling Ren and the player “the courts ordered you to transfer and move out here, which your parents also approved.” And then rather cruelly remarks: “In other words, they got rid of you for being a pain in the ass.” While it is a harsh way to put it and Sojiro doesn’t personally know Ren’s parents I’d argue his assessment is essentially true. The typical parent would fight tooth and nail to keep their children from being taken away, yet it’s implied Ren’s parents were content with Sojiro’s temporary custody. This leaves a parent shaped gap in Ren’s life.

In Royal’s bad ending, Ren has three wishes:

Having Akechi back.

For his friends to stay together.

To stay with Sojiro.

For now, I’m going to focus on that third one. Sojiro asks Ren "Would you maybe like to keep staying at the cafe? And maybe, even after graduation, you could..." and then trails off, waiting for Ren’s response. The two options the player is given is "Yes, I'd love to." and "I want to stay forever." Sojiro approaches Ren about this, indicating this isn’t just Sojiro being brainwashed by Maruki so Ren’s wish comes true, it’s clearly something wanted by both of them. Royal’s bad ending indicates that the two very much see each other as family and they want to remain that way.

I propose that a way this Confidant can be improved is to have Ren admit to Sojiro in one of the later ranks that he’s been more of a father then his actual parents. What Ren’s home life was like could be elaborated on in this Confidant. Then in rank ten have Ren welcomed into the family. I’m not suggesting massive changes, just that Ren’s family life be elaborated on a little bit more.

Please just let them be a family and cut the Futaba romance route. Please ATLUS I’m begging you just let hi—

Faith

Sumire’s Confidant is one I have many feelings and opinions on. I love Sumire as a character, but the Faith Confidant needed to be better. To me it seems as if Sumire was intended to be very close to Ren. She is one of two characters to have a show time with him and then no matter your personal feelings on the matter, it’s impossible to deny Sumire is pushed as the main love interest for Ren (just look at the marketing). Given their Confidant, this is undeserved. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s any worse or better than any of the others, but if it’s going to be the main route and if her feelings are going to be canonical regardless of out route the player chooses, then their relationship regardless of whether it’s platonic or romantic has to be more two-sided. I think their relationship should be important. As I mentioned they have a show time together and a lot of the advertisement for Royal pushes them together.

Let’s take a quick look at Haru’s Confidant, while personally, it is not my favourite as I believed Haru could have been written better, her feelings for Ren make a lot of sense. She’s been very isolated her entire life and it’s clear that Ren is the only person who has ever just listened to her without ulterior motive so it seems natural that feelings would develop even if their relationship isn’t two-sided. I don’t want to sound cruel or malicious but in this situation, as long as Ren listens and is kind, the rest of his personality doesn’t matter.

Now, let’s return to Sumire. Ignoring romantic feelings for now, why does she like Ren? Because he inspired her and she wants to show off and impress him which drives her to complete and be her true self. This works as a premise but why Ren? She could want to impress her father or her coach. So why Ren? To answer this question you have to make their relationship more two-sided. She has to get to know Ren as he gets to know her.

The first five Confidants should focus on fun and showing off. The first five Confidants are, in my opinion, very boring. Sumire wants to get out of her slump and Ren offers to help her, I propose that Ren’s idea of how to get out of her slump should be having fun together. For example, they could go to the amusement park together or Destiny Land. I think the fourth Confidant where Kasumi’s bad cooking skills are established is important as a) it sets up the later reveal that Sumire is a good cook and just how far Maruki has influenced her that she’s losing skills and b) it establishes how much work she puts into being a gymnast, that she has to carefully consider everything she eats. But the rank itself is boring. My solution is to make it an eating competition between the two of them. We know from Akechi’s Confidant that Ren is competitive and of course from The Big Bang Burger Challenge that he wouldn’t lose automatically. Additionally, it’s a fun way to set up that Sumire likes showing off and impressing people, even if it’s at something as silly as an eating competition. These changes could also establish that Ren is one of the only people Sumire feels like she can relax and have fun around. While she wants him to have high expectations of her, those expectations aren’t crushing, they’re welcomed. I’m not saying the specific changes I’ve laid out 100% should have happened, but it’s an idea of how it could make their relationship more interesting.

Now the second half of their confidence is a lot more important, and already better written than the first half. I have two ideas for how to improve it to make their relationship more dynamic. Number one is the theme of futures. Sumire is one of two characters that Ren makes any hypothetical plans with beyond a general, we’ll remain friends, even if we split. (Though this number could technically be moved to three if you want to count Ren’s incredibly depressing refusal to move past Akechi’s death and holding onto the glove thinking he’ll come back). That’s incredibly important.

Sumire jokingly asks Ren to “join [her] on [her] tour.” The player doesn’t actually have the option to say no with a joking “give me a break” being the closest to it. (Oddly enough Sumire’s proposal only happens in the platonic route.) While this is purely hypothetical and Sumire only jokes about it, it is a possibility for the future that is more specific than a simple “no matter what we’ll remain friends.”

So I propose that the second half of the Confidant could focus on Ren’s future too. We never see what his future ambitions are and I think that Sumire’s Confidant is the perfect one to explore that in. Although there are other characters who question their futures, I believe Sumire’s fits the best as she’s driven and ambitious like Ren, and while she does question who she is because of her time as Kasumi, she’s always confident about being a gymnast which I feel clicks with Ren’s confidence.

Now I could stop here, but I also think Sumire’s Confidant could also have the potential to explore Ren’s mirroring nature. Sumire’s is one of the last Confidants the player will complete as the last five ranks are locked so this trait can be established prior to her Confidant. Additionally, she has a similar dual identity.

Due to how he’s written as a semi self insert protagonist, Ren adapts himself to each person he knows. To progress through the Confidants, as a player you have to choose and consider the right answers and this transfers onto Ren as a character. And at the beginning of the game, one of the first tasks you are given is not to stand out. I could write a ton on this but it’s going to clog this up so I want to keep it short. I think his friendship with Sumire could be an interesting way to explore this trait and how the two of them hide behind masks. Potentially Sumire could confront him about this and tell him she wants to get to know the real him like he got to know her over Kasumi. I’m going to move on now before I bring Akechi into this and start droning on and on about the Royal Trio and masks.

At Sae’s palace, Sumire says to Ren "My weak self relied on you so much... that ends today.” “It's my turn to come to your aid, Senpai." Sumire never truly follows up on this new promise. She helps him in that battle and in following battles against Maruki, but she never helps him emotionally as he helped her. She says she doesn’t want to rely on him anymore but she only becomes more dependent. I don’t think relying on one’s friends is a bad thing, of course it’s not, but when it’s only happening one way something is wrong. And there is a big difference between Ren helping Ryuji help the track team and Ren helping Sumire through her trauma relating to Kasumi’s death and her identity. I’m not trying to villainise Sumire or anything like that, but I really wished their reliance on each other was more equal.

I’d suggest that Sumire should say to Ren she feels guilty for always relying on him without ever giving anything in turn. Then either have them talk about their identity or have her ask about his future and ambitions. Either way, have her keep her promise to help and support him as he has done for her.

To be honest, I could go on and on about alterations to Sumire’s Confidant and her Confidant in general, but I’m gonna leave it as this (for now).

All in all, it seems as if Ren’s relationship with Sumire was supposed to be extremely important, but it doesn’t stand out from any of the other Confidants as being so. So in conclusion, their showtime is cool but ATLUS you gotta work to sell me on how close they are.

Conclusion

It’s a shame Ren’s treated as an audience surrogate for most of the Confidants when he’s more interesting as a character. While I think it makes sense that he is closer to some Confidants then others, for example, his bond with Mishima isn’t nearly as close as his bond with Ann, it would have been cool if his character had been explored at least partly through each and his relationships with each Confidant.

#persona 5 #p5 joker #ren amamiya #akira kusuru #persona 5 royal #goro akechi #sojiro sakura #sumire yoshizawa #violet talks

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akechicrimes · 5 years ago

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ok alright there’s been some talk about sumi’s outfit being modeled after joker and how this is disappointing, so today i’m getting on my soapbox and we’re talking about:

sumi and akechi are foils of each other through foiling joker.

this breaks down really easily. it’s literally like math.

sumi wants a happy ending so badly that she’s willing to sacrifice her entire identity, sense of self, even the physical manifestation of her soul, to become like kasumi and model herself after joker. she is heavily invested in the damsel-in-distress narrative, and models herself after it. she’s so heavily invested in it that she conscripts joker into performing it with her (take a look at her showtime and how she grabs his hand to make him dip her). and ultimately, as we already know, this means that she literally is destroying her sense of identity as “sumire” in order to become literally someone else (kasumi and also joker).

akechi is... the opposite. of literally all of this. not only is he not into happy fairy tales, he actively embraces villain aesthetics. especially in royal, he has a strong sense of self and sticks to it, even when it pisses off other phantom thieves members, even going so far as to antagonize them with it. he spends less time cooperating with joker as he does asserting his independence and arguing against joker. on the note of akechi arguing against joker, akechi actively advocates against a “fairy-tale” ending,

in sum: akechi is joker’s opposite--his antithesis, if you will. sumi is joker’s replicate--his identical.

so of course sumi’s outfit is identical to joker’s.

sumi, i think, is a really interesting observation that in some way, sumi’s erasure of herself is exactly what joker does throughout the game: he erases his self, hides who he really is, all for the sake of pleasing other people’s social links and narrative arcs. in the same way that sumi is trying to fulfill kasumi’s narrative arc post-death, joker can model his answers to whatever will help the other person’s personal story, and the game actively rewards you for modeling joker’s personality after s links according to the person. dating sumi, especially in the valentine’s day scene, feels like fulfilling all her princess-in-a-castle dreams, and joker successfully models himself after the same fairytale narrative that sumi’s modeled herself.

akechi, by contrast, asks the exact opposite: he wants to see akira’s true self, wants to see what akira’s really made of, wants akira to choose reality and truth over a manufactured happiness. (i don’t think it’s a mistake that akira as a character with a personality is far more prevalent in akechi’s storyline than sumi’s.)

(again, not to make it LGBT, but i think it’s worth noting that the fairytale aesthetic is one of the most insidious forms of heterosexual scripts, employing men as the masculine savior and women as delicate and in need of saving. as lesbianakechi mentioned, sumi’s adherence to fairytale heterosexual scripts feels a lot like comp het that she’s conscripted joker into. by contrast, akechi, the coded queer love interest, gives less than a negative fuck about heterosexual scripts, and instead pushes an alternative romance script in which both partners are religiously equal to each other in power and agency, respect each others’ decisions as individuals, and are unafraid to disagree with each other while still remaining dedicated to each other.)

if we’re taking it as a fact that both sumi and akechi are more or less presented as opposite love interest options for joker, what ends up happening is that they become paired up as two completely opposite ways of going about a relationship with someone. and in pairing the two of them up, royal is able to demonstrate the pros and cons of both situations. the comparison means that royal walks away with pretty consistent and strong message about what a good romance should be--hell, what a good relationship in general should be.

royal says that it’s actively harmful to erase oneself so be in a relationship with someone else. royal actively pushes against sumi’s erasure of her own identity and asks her to be--well, sumi. royal’s bad ending is akechi’s free will and his identity being erased. royal’s good ending has them all returning to reality, in which the phantom thieves go on to pursue their individual interests and don’t have their selves erased to fit into some perfect ending, and this reality includes the fact that akechi picked being true to himself and his ideals over being alive (insofar as he was aware), and also this reality includes sumi having to do the terrible, horrible work of actually being herself at the risk of being hated for being imperfect.

basically, insofar as i can see, sumi’s not just there to distract from the amazing amounts of shuake in royal. sumi is struggling with the core problem of royal’s storyline all by herself, which is the need to sacrifice oneself and one’s free will and one’s truth for a mandatory perfect, happy ending. takuto struggles with the same issue from the other end, in that he’s sacrificing other people’s free will and truths for a mandatory perfect, happy ending. akechi and joker are obviously struggling with the same issue, but for each other (”if only akechi were just NOT an asshole to all the thieves, people could be friends... if only akechi WEREN’T dead, we could have a fairytale ending...”)

ironically, what sumi does seem to be there for is to illustrate the ways that shuake, for all its arguing and fighting and the fact that both parties have attempted to kill each other, is a relationship that’s founded on respect for each other’s autonomy and individuality. their rivalry has an appreciation for the ways they’re different, rather than merely tolerating the differences or working around them. akechi disagrees all the goddamn time with the phantom thieves, from the minute he shows up in the interview newsroom at rank 1 all the way to the moment he tells joker to return to reality even if it means akechi will die. and this is shown as a good thing, and this is especially obvious because sumi is there to demonstrate the opposite situation in which nobody argues and nobody is honest and we achieve happy perfect endings at the cost of everything else.

according to royal, a romance in which someone erases their selfhood to fit a (heterosexual) fairy-tale script is a deeply fucked up thing, and we should not do that. royal says that sumi is making a mistake in trying to be kasumi and trying to be a perfect damsel--or should i say, perfect waifu.

the irony about sumi is that in this light, her storyline is really a self-inflicted crime. she’s hurting herself at its core. it has nothing to do with romance or joker or being a cute waifu. her adherence to fairytale scripts is a means of self-destruction. which, in my opinion, is a pretty bold fucking plotline to pitch for a female character: that her adherence to feminine-coded roles and heterosexual interactions are actively destroying her as a person.

#meta #mine #p5r spoilers #i say this with a lot of love for blkmvsk because u are one of my favorite mutuals #please dont be offended hahah..........#i was following the conversation on ur blog and honestly i thought it was really interesting tbh #i just wanted to pitch in my two cents

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p5youllneverseeitcoming · 5 years ago

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So I finished Persona 5 Royal

And once again I was a crying mess when the ending credits rolled.

Now, I’d like to share my thoughts about this game but I also respect the fact that not everyone had the chance to finish it yet so anything that is a spoiler will be talked about under the cut.

Anyways, let’s begin.

From the very beginning... I love the new title screen, the fact that you can see each member just hanging out in the streets of Tokyo is so cute and I love it. It’s so easy to get a platinum trophy for Persona 5 Royal which at first I thought was somewhat disappointing as it doesn’t require you to play through it again but then I found out there’s a bunch of challenges in the Thieves Den so I was really glad I had a reason to play it again.

Speaking of the Thieves Den, it’s really nice to see your team members just chat about the decorations you put in there, like for example Yusuke and Ann casually chatting in front of a Reaper statue like it’s no big deal. On a small sidenote, my mum really likes the fact that you can play Tycoon in the Thieves Den and I’m not gonna lie she spent hours playing with them which means I now have thousands of tokens but nothing to spend them on :’)

Much of P5R is very similar to the vanilla P5 except of course the fact that there’s 2 new characters being introduced to the story. You still get sent to Tokyo for ‘assaulting’ the drunk man however, the first change that you really notice is Sojiro’s conversation with you when he is taking you home on the Sunday you visit the school. Of course, by this point you know that there have been many psychotic breakdowns and a lot of accidents but what Sojiro tells you is... Interesting to say the least. I didn’t think of it much at first but then again I went into Royal completely spoiler free (except of course with the knowledge of how Persona 5 plays out) but eventually you find out that what he said was actually really important.

Another thing I really loved that they put in Royal is the fact that they managed to make the battle system even better. I always thought it was pretty amazing but they somehow managed to make it even better. First off, you can Baton Pass right off the bat. No need to establish a social link with the party members or anything, which honestly makes everything so much easier, especially in the early game. They also decided, you know what this nasty crime boy needs? Unlimited bullets... Well sorta. Remember how in Persona 5 you only had a limited amount of bullets per infiltration? Well, now they replenish every battle which of course means I did the only rational thing:

You also get the grappling hook in Royal and honestly? Just watching Joker do flips all over the place is really aesthetically pleasing. I love that they reworked the Palaces so that the grappling hook plays a big part in getting around and as I said, it’s just so fun to see Joker zooming through the air.

They added new Shadows/Personas to Royal which I think is fantastic as it makes returning players not bored of the battles but they also changed some weaknesses/removed weaknesses for some shadows which means you gotta strategise a little bit more. They also changed up the Palace Ruler Bosses but I found them... A lot more easier than the original? I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that I love to grind a lot before finishing a Palace or if I just had the perfect Personas for the occasion but yeah... That’s not to say the changes are bad! I still really liked them but it was just... Really easy for me lol.

Another major change is the fact that Morgana decided that you may be a tired boi after going to the Metaverse but you still have enough energy to do some things in the cafe. That makes it like a ton easier to max out your social stats which means you can max out your confidants a lot faster, I managed to max out everyone and still had days where I literally had nothing to do which just shows how much time you actually save now.

Along with the fact that they fixed some translation errors, they also improved the sprites and added a lot more voice lines which was really nice in my opinion, it was a lot better when a character was expressing a certain emotion and their sprite actually matched it instead of just them facing one way and occasionally changing the facial expression.

I’ll mention this briefly seeing as this is sort of spoilery but I really loved the new confidants. The fact that you can actually hang out with Akechi and get to know him instead of being forced to level him up automatically was so good. The scenes where you would automatically rank up are still there but they kinda act as a filler of sorts now which in all honesty I didn’t mind.

Ummm... That’s about all I can think of that doesn’t contain spoilers so... The section below will have spoilers so please only read this when you finish the game!

I’m going to talk about Akechi’s Confidant for a bit because I just really loved it okay? You learn so much about him, even things that seem trivial like the fact that he’s left handed become... Well rather important near the end. The more time you spend with him, the more you see how much Akira actually means to him. When you defeat him in his Rank 8 event, I actually loved it when he said he hated Akira. That was pure Akechi right there, no lies, no fake smiles just pure, honest truth. Also, I love how he decided to be extra and dramatic by throwing his glove as a challenge. It’s also really significant, at least to me, mainly because you never see him without gloves, in a way, this sort of showed that he fully exposed his true self to Akira. Their exchange in Shido’s Palace when you remind him that you still have his glove... That was really sad. I really wish there was some way you could help him, but alas, you can’t always have happy endings.

I’m not gonna lie, I was really confused when I got to 12/24 and we still went to Mementos. You discover a Palace and explore it for a bit but then it’s kind of... Forgotten? Like Morgana is genuinely like: Lmao this doesn’t concern us atm so you know, killed God with the power of friendship, was ready to stop being a Phantom Thief and surrender myself to the police but then... Mr. Sketchy himself just appears out of nowhere and decides that he’ll take Akira’s place for him

When I first saw him I was like: Omg? How is this even possible? Can I hug him? But then weird things started happening in the story

Reality becomes distorted after New Years and you see that right away when your cat, is no longer a cat. But that’s not all, Futaba’s mother is alive and well as well as Haru’s father and supposedly they were never dead in the first place. I was really confused but then guess who turns up to clear some things up... Mr. Pankechi.

This post is already long as hecc so I won’t go into details but I really like the new Palace. It’s so different to the other Palaces and for once the Palace Ruler is not some evil adult... He’s actually quite the opposite.

I’m going to quickly talk about Kasumi for a second now, or rather Sumire. Honestly when you learn the truth, I was really shocked. Remember when I said what Sojiro tells you becomes important near the end? Yeah well it’s like the game was telling you from the start that she’s not really who she says she is. Just like Akechi, I was fully convinced that the New Palace was hers but I was kind of relieved to find out that wasn’t the case. As a party member, I really like her, she’s really cute and her Persona abilities are helpful in the new Palace. As a confidant... Again, she’s just so cute. When you help her pick out the glasses for her dad... Bruh I just wanted to give her headpats all day. Once you unlock the rest of her confidant, it’s really nice to see her grow and accept the fact that she doesn’t have to be Kasumi appreciated, and once she accepts that she’s Sumire but she’ll still do everything to make Kasumi’s dream come true it was honestly so satisfying.

I think the thing I loved the most though is the fact that Akechi becomes your navigator for a little while and honestly? I wish I had the option to keep him as the navigator. His lines are so funny because they’re helpful but at the same time they’re so passive aggressive! ALSO his Showtime with Joker is by far my favourite Showtime. I love how he’s able to just be himself and literally rip enemies apart and Joker’s just there like: Yeah I’ll play along why not. Whenever they finish and Akechi is just there like: “Don’t waste my time.” ... Big mood, me when I’m driving around Mementos trying to find the stamps.

One more thing I gotta talk about... The ending. I love it so much. I think it’s a lot better than the original Persona 5 ending and here’s why. First of all, the fact that you see the Thieves still being themselves is just so sweet I love these funky kids, that fact that Maruki gives you a lift to the station and he accepts that this is the world that you have to live in? Amazing, thank you Atlus. The fact that Morgana is just snoozing in your bag? Beautiful, let me pet my cat plz. But most importantly... The edgy pancake loving detective LIVES, granted Akira doesn’t actually see him but I DID. I burst into tears when I saw him walk by, I’m so glad he got to live in a reality where he isn’t anyone’s puppet anymore. He can finally fix the mistakes he did, don’t get me wrong, Akechi is still a bad person, I mean he literally killed people but he still deserved a second chance, and seeing him alive means that he finally has a chance to do that... Bruh I was crying so much.

Anyway, I could talk about this game for hours but here are just some of my thoughts that I wanted to share, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say later on but for now... Have this mess I call a post!

#p5r #p5 #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p5r spoilers #persona 5 spoilers

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cherubchoirs · 5 years ago

Note

Au were the Yoshizawas adopt Goro two years before P5/P5R but Goro still becomes Black Mask but in a different way/different motives and while Sumire has more support form Akechi she still becomes “Kasumi”. Akechi hiding his second job from his sister. He despises Maurki from the beginning and is disappointed in Sumire. Just Akechi and Sumire being siblings and willing to die and kill for each other.

P5R SPOILERS UNDER READ MORE!

GOD i just really wish there was more interactions between the two of them, that they had any decent connection at all tbh. i kno i keep complaining about it, but it felt really weird to sell akira, goro, and sumire as the royal trio when...goro and sumire have very little to actually do with each other, and there’s only one point in the game in which your team consists only of them where goro and sumire get a majority of their interactions. i mean the guidebook even says that goro really feels nothing toward sumire, SO IT JUST LEFT ME PUZZLED TBH (and also the love triangle comment about them...ig they just meant both goro and sumire love akira??? IDK!!!!) so that’s a roundabout why of saying i like any au that gives these two a deeper connection and just like. goro not being entirely sure what’s happened to sumire to make her change so much after going to see that therapist ONE time, like all of her grief has vanished and suddenly she’s tying her hair up like kasumi, taking off her glasses like kasumi...honestly, you’d think her dad would have been ????? over such a drastic and troubling change. and it’s like she’s just fully embraced her sister’s identity, at first all of it seeming like a bizarre way of coping but something isn’t right, not with the way she talks about her sister and how suddenly, she’s not so confident in her cooking and the skills that sumire had. he doesn’t trust whatever maruki did with her, and he digs up dirt on him to figure out what his history is and...a cognitive pscience researcher. it pisses him off IMMEDIATELY, hating that maruki obviously took some easy way out with sumire, that he somehow manipulated her cognition and placed her under the impression that she’s kasumi. he has no idea if she willingly let herself become this or if he did it insidiously, but either way sumire too has taken the easy way out of mourning her sister. but what can he do? he’s stuck where he’s at knowing nothing of maruki and not wanting to stray out of his work due to the kinds of complications it would cause...and he already has more than enough of that. so he just has to bide his time, watching sumire live her life as kasumi instead, nothing he says able to break her out of her fantasy - but honestly, since maruki’s method is unknown, he’s not even confident that dispelling the illusion would be safe for sumire. a lot of story points from p5r could then be kept the same even, all leading up to when akira, goro, and sumire confront maruki in his palace and goro finally learns what happened to his sister BC LIKE...there would be so much good emotional payoff: goro realizing sumire’s situation and the extent of her pain, as well as sumire coming to terms with who goro really is. it would give both of them a nice arc relating to other main characters that aren’t akira, a brother and sister that have grown distant reconciling and moving forward to accept who both of them truly are. I JUST WISH THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN THEM SOMETHING LIKE THIS PLS ATLUS....

#goro and sumire desperately needed more than being acquaintances #the way it is just makes for poor dynamics if you're selling them as a trio #i know there is the problem of the game being largely from akira's pov #but we know goro and sumire never interact with each other without him so #idk this was another big issue i had with the game and its marketing #p5 #p5r #goro akechi #sumire yoshizawa #p5r spoilers #persona 5 royal spoilers #askmarietheapprentice

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tricksheart · 4 years ago

Text

Devil May Cry Verse

( mostly the 5th game since that takes place after Persona 5 / Persona 5 Royal / Scramble ).

NOTES

Persona Users: Not commonly known throughout the world, they mainly exist in Japan. Are considered SUMMONERS since they deal with summoning demons, god, and angels to fight terrors that roam the planet. Only appear in time of need or when the world is about to end. Supernatural events on a long scale are usually handled by the SHADOW OP CORPS, headed by Mitsuru Kirijo. Founded in 2010, has gained some type of credibility and fame. Not as well-known as the Demon Hunters Association, headed by Skins and Fujiwara or other independent groups such as Devil May Cry.

Wildcards: After the massive battle of 1999, only a few remained that could summon more than just one persona. These are special cases, wielding such great potential and power. These are handed out at random and not chosen by bloodlines, unless there is an emergency that calls Philemon, creator of the Velvet Room, to do so. Only two wildcards remain.

Summoning: Persona Users summon in different ways but the end result is always the same. Most just call out their names but sometimes it can be somewhat unique. Some use an evoker ( third generation persona users ), others crush a card ( fourth generation persona users ) and finally, some rip off masks that adorn their faces in a bloody gruesome scene ( fifth generation persona users ).

TIMELINE

1974- Katsuya Suou, Akira’s father, is born.

1976- Maya Amano, Akira’s mother, is born. So are two half human / half demon twins, Vergil and Dante Sparda in another part of the world ( and yes, it’s canon that this was the year that they were born, Scary coincidence huh? ).

1981- Tatsuya Suou, Akira’s uncle, is born. 1982- Jun Kurosu, Tatsuya’s life partner, is born. Marries into the Suou family in later years and becomes Akira’s uncle. 1984- The tragedy at the Sparda’s home happens. The house is consumed by flames and only one twin is said to survive the ordeal.

1989- Maya, Tatsuya, and Jun become friends. In the same year, Maya awakens her Persona, along with Tatsuya in the burning shrine sat on fire by Tatsuya Sudou. Jun is said to become corrupted by a space demon god made into existence by mankind itself, Nyarlathotep and becomes JOKER. Reeks havoc, chaos, and turns the landscape into a place for demons to roam in Japan for years.

1993- Minato Arisato / Minako Arisato, the first wildcard, is born.

1994- Events of the third Devil May Cry game takes place.

1995- Nero de Angelo is born. In that same year, Yu Narukami, the second wildcard, is born.

1999- A team of persona users defeats Nyarlathotep at last, consisting of Maya, Katsuya, Tatsuya, Jun, who had gotten cleansed of the JOKER curse put upon him, and a few others. Maya almost dies from a terrible wound but gets saved in time to have herself healed by the power of the combined team’s willpower. However, not everything is well since Maya afterwards has terrible nightmares that haunt her every so often, of the world stuck in a destroyed universe and has pained heart conditions because of this. In that same year, Death, also known as the goddess Nyx, is sealed into the wildcard Minato Arisato / Minako Arisato at the age of 6 by A.I.G.I.S. Peace is slowly returning to normal but for only a short time.

2000- Akira Amano-Suou, the third wildcard, is born. The power vacuum created by destroying Nyarlathotep gets replaced by another source of chaos, the God of Control also known as Yaldabaoth. Evil demon god born from the corrupted wishes of humanity and is known to be the equivalent of the holy grail of legend. Philemon picked Akira as a wildcard, even after the wishes of his parents pleaded with the entity not to do so, saying that the child was the savior of humanity.

2001- Events of the first Devil May Cry game takes place.

2002 or 2003???- Events of the 2nd Devil May Cry game takes place.

2008- Events of the fourth Devil May Cry game takes place.

2009- Nyx / Death is summoned back into the world through the tower called Tartarus. Minato Arisato / Minako Arisato and the group SEES are able to defeat said goddess but at the cost of the first wildcard’s life, turning into a seal. Ryoji Mochizuki is reincarnated as a regular human and A.I.G.I.S. is still considered a Chariot based persona user.

2010- The Shadow OPS CORPS is established and founded by Mitsuru Kirijo, due to guilt of not saving their leader and a mission to protecting humans from disastrous otherworldly events.

2011- Yu Narukami gets sent to Inaba, Japan to live with his uncle Ryotaro and cousin Nanako. In that same year, him and his investigation team solve the mysterious murders and the supernatural fog that surrounds the town in the fall and winter months. Marie ( more like Mary Sue ) does not exist and the final demon god is Izanami / the gas station attendant the 2nd wildcard meets during his first day in Inaba. Yu Narukami returns home shortly after this.

2012 to 2013- Persona Arena and Persona Ultimax takes place. Persona users clash and fight one on one in a tournament setting. Mostly due to demon / supernatural forces but those eventually get defeated by the 3rd and 4th generation persona users in the finale.

2016- Akira, going by the false last name of Kurusu, gets sent to Tokyo on probation. Falsely charged and forced to be shipped off into the big city, he lives in Yongen-Jaya with his guardian, Sojiro Sakura. Awakens to his persona, Arsene, and gets a codename, that being Joker. Hates the name because of the implications with it from the past. With café LeBlanc being both his new home and hideout, him and his friends also known as the infamous phantom thieves steal the hearts of the corrupted and then finally shoot the God of Control in the face, killing the evil deity once in for all.

However, the power vacuum still exists after the annihilation of Yaldabaoth and falls upon Takuto Maruki, making him a false god. Creating a new reality, everyone is trapped in this world and leading blissful lives except for Akira and Goro Akechi. Thanks to efforts of Akira finally able to break his friends out of the dreams that they were caught in and Akechi’s refusal to be used as a manipulation tactic for Maruki in order for Akira to take the deal to live in the fake world, the group is finally able to return to the original reality. Akechi doesn’t make the trip back and dies, already being dead in the original reality. Akira returns home shortly after this but still believes his rival will return someday, thanks to the true ending. Akira either has a relationship with Haru Okumura, Sumire Yoshizawa, Hifumi Togo, or Shiho Suzui during this time and will carry over in later years.

2017- Events of Persona 5 Scramble takes place. Two more persona users are added to Akira’s own team. After parting ways, Akira focuses on his dream job, whether that is an actor or race car driver is only up to him.

2017-2018???- Events of the fifth Devil May Cry series takes place.

Akira is visiting Ann overseas and gets pulled into the mess of the story when trying to get back home to Japan. Meets V during this time and thinks the mystery guy is a persona user thanks to the three demons the man has but is promptly shut down. Despite the misunderstanding, the two have somewhat aligned goals and proceed ahead. The two surprisingly get along well and Akira takes a shine to one of the three demon pets that helps V fight, aka Griffon.

Akira meets the DMC gang ( Nico, Nero, and Lady ) in Nico’s van after a certain point and gets the majority of what exactly has happened. He agrees to help as much as he can since Akira can’t leave the supernatural charged land for some odd reason. Finally meets Dante and the two don’t really seem to get along, mainly due to Akira having the same aura as the Demifiend that Dante chased through a maze in a different dimension. After a few fights, they call a truce and try to work with everyone else, Trish joins the group at this point, to stop the already looming threat.

Doesn’t get to see the final battle but is told by the only one that makes it towards the top, Nero, that Dante wanted him to look over his shop sometimes since the other two were stuck in hell. This baffles everyone else, especially Akira, not really knowing why since him and Dante were always clashing. He somewhat agrees, only because there was acting schools oddly not too far away. He secretly hopes that the promise / deal is only temporary because he would like to go back home at some point and start a new life away from all of this dealing with demons / gods / supernatural bullshit.

#long post: tw #[ pull my devil trigger. DEVIL MAY CRY. verse ]#I finally finished it!!;;#now I can rest;;

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tricksheart · 4 years ago

Text

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Meme.

Mun

& Muse

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: Stolen from: @niflheimqueen tagging: Everyone else who hasn’t yet! You have been tagged!

MY MUSE IS: canon / oc / au / slightly canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated. IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM? YES? / NO. IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. ( Have you went through his character tags? Every day I see a post that comments on Akira / Ren / the Persona 5 Protagonist and how good looking he is, with or without his glasses or in his Joker costume. And between the 3 wildcard protags: Minato. Yu, and Akira , everyone mostly agrees that my character is the hottest out of them ). IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. ( He becomes a freaking god / demon lord temporarily, defeats gods 3 times, the greatest control over his own personas and has stronger personas of protagonists from the past aka picaro versions. He’s extremely overpowered and has several METAs in his tags to back that claim up from the fandom’s point of view ). ARE THEY UNDERRATED? YES / NO / IDK. ( Actually he’s a little overrated. Probably will be until Persona 6. Mainly because he’s in so many games besides the persona franchise. He’s even in a SAO game for crying out loud and him being a playable character in Super Smash Bros doesn’t help either since a lot of people that can’t play persona get to see and like him ). WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY? YES / NO WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAGONIST ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD? YES / NO / IT’S COMPLICATED. ( He’s mostly known to the world as Joker / leader of the Phantom Thieves and of course the rumors about his reputation around the school as being the troublesome delinquent transfer student. Other than being somewhat infamous, he tends to blend in with his surroundings and doesn’t stick out that much. It’s in fact a ruse but a really good ruse to fool almost anyone. The only one that barely calls him out is Goro Akechi but mostly out of jealousy ) HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. ( In most cases, his reputation is quite bad but it’s not really his fault. Getting falsely accused, having it get leaked by a teacher in his new school and having people generally spread rumors that aren’t true about him really hurt his social status. He’s not even allowed in the library in the beginning of the game and several people actually root for him to drop out of school completely. That doesn’t even compare when a few individuals call him actual garbage / trash. And he even can’t join any clubs at school despite wanting to join. He’s the only one of the wildcards that can’t join any after school activities. With his friends and confidants, it’s really quite neutral. Some people adore / rely on him ( ‘Kasumi’ / Sumire, Futaba, Ann, Ryuji, Yusuke, Hifumi, Shiho, Shinya ) and others initially don’t want anything to do with him ( Sojiro / Iwai / Mishima / Kawakami, Takemi, and yes, even Goro but it’s more hidden away because he is capable of hiding it so easily). He’s had the most bad luck in game between the 3 wildcards. HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON? — ( I try to stick close to canon as possible but I’ve had Akira even before his game was released so a lot of things are headcanon’d but honestly, Akira is basically a self-insert as there is no set canon. Even his name isn’t permanent ( not counting all the names he has, why atlus why?? ). The great thing about persona protagonists are that you can use just the bare bones of what the game gives you and just run with it because everyone’s interpretation is different / unique.)

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting

in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — ( He’s always fighting for freedom and justice, actually seeks out to destroy the injustice placed on the younger generation or the weak by rotten adults or people that just don’t care that bad shit is happening to others. He’s always looking towards a brighter future and sticks to his own beliefs and never wavers ( unless it’s a bad end AU or just fails to complete a dungeon on time ). He’s willing to rescue / help anyone in need, even if it’s harmful to himself and never sells out his friends, even under pressure. Plus, he’s pretty and has a smirk so devilish charming that you can’t help to notice that he’s a really handsome boy, with or without his glasses. ).

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). ( His anime counterpart is so bland when compared the game and manga series, mainly because it really doesn’t focus on him too much and mostly on the other characters that surround him. He’s also quite rude to some of his confidants and he can take deals that only benefits him ( like with the Demiurge and Maruki’s happy world reality ). He can be a little selfish and moody, cranky even and I don’t think some muses / people would find that appealing).

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE? — ( I guess it was how similar I saw myself in him. I actually relate to this protagonist the most. Isolated, away from home with no relatives taking care of him, few to no friends while in a strange place, everyone doesn’t care about his situation and told him to basically be complainant and not to cause trouble. Also what he represents and strives towards. I truly believe he is the best protagonist out there, with Maya Amano from Persona 2 right behind him. He basically inspires others which in return, inspires me to write this character. ).

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING? — ( I actually have the most fun when writing him and those who interact with me and my character really seem to enjoy him and his characterization. Plus, I spend a lot of time and effort into him that it keeps me motivated ).

Some more personal questions for the mun. Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE? YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS? YES / NO / SORT OF? DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES? YES / NO / IT’S COMPLICATED DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY? YES / NO ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL? YES / NO / SORT OF? ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING? YES / NO / A LITTLE BIT. ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON? YES / NO. / SORTA DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL? — ( Yes and no. If it’s legit constructive by all means but if it’s met with ill content, I get defensive. If anyone doesn’t like my version of the protagonist then by all means block me and then go find another one. ) DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER? — ( Yes, I do!! I love when people are general curious about my version of Akira, although sometimes I have to think about something a long time before I can answer them ). IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? — ( Sure I’ll listen to their side. It’s great to hear different opinions since everything is up to interpretation. ) IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT? — (If my portrayal doesn’t fit your idea of Akira / Ren / Persona 5 Protagonist / Joker then perhaps I’m not the Akira / Ren / Persona 5 Protagonist / Joker for you and the block button is always there. No harm done really. ) IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT? — ( My rules state that all hate towards my character will result in a block and I am not afraid to do so if I get any sort of messages or downright horrible comments. Why even follow me if you hate my character, you know? ) ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS? — ( Sure. Even if English is my first language, I still make mistakes here and there. If I do spell something wrong or the sentence doesn’t make sense, please let me know ) DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN? — ( I like to think so. There’s not a lot that makes me mad or angry. I’m really chill for the most part ).

#long post: tw #[ we call them TRICKSTERS. HEADCANON ]#[ akira kurusu in disguise. SERE ]

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