#like- it's not an either or. Atlus can do right by Joker and Akechi's characters

[senblades]

I was just about to make this post and you beat me to it HAHAHA

You're absolutely right in this: it is essentially a question of whether the themes of persona 5 should apply to Joker through Akechi, or whether they should be able to apply to Akechi himself, too.

A bit of a mouthful of a sentance that only really makes sense with the context in my head, so I'll elaborate:

The themes of persona 5 can be argued at length, but it would be very difficult to refute this: Persona 5 is about the future that we, as individuals, carve for ourselves, in spite of what our circumstances may dictate we should be.

Trying to explain why I think this might end up long and rambly, but I'll try and condense it down with some literary analysis or something:

The Phantom Thieves have the power to change the minds of others. Joker often uses this to help his myriad friends across Toyko, using the power he has to help others when they cannot help themselves.

And, yet, outside of the main story quests, the PT don't use this power to get themselves out of simialr situations. Haru doesn't request her fiance be a target, Ryuji doesn't ask to change the heart of the new track team coach, Ann barely even has a bone to pick with Mika- they have a magic solution, and yet they don't use it for themselves in their confidant stories. (Futaba's case is a bit weird, because she submits a mementos request for the sake of her friend Kana rather than herself, so I think she still falls into the same category as the rest of the PT)

Now this pattern is fascinating, and also relates pretty heavily to Maruki's reality as well.

"Why didn't they just change x's heart?" "In Maruki's reality, everyone would be happy, though" These kinds of arguments, while true, are not the point this game is trying to make.

In the real world, our real world, there is no such thing as changing hearts, there is no such thing as a perfect reality. This will also be true for the Phantom Thieves, one the Metaverse is gone (excluding the spin offs. And the other spin off. And the other-), so the PT choosing to face the real world, without magic solutions at their fingertips, is asking the audience the question of "How are you going to stand up for yourself when it feels like everyone is against you? How will you carve the future for yourself, if you know you can't change the world?"

Bringing this back to Joker and Akechi; if Akechi is truly dead, this essentially makes Joker's "end of the game themes" a parallel to Maruki's: Maruki lost Rumi -in a sense- and took the easy, magic solution that was handed to him. Joker, meanwhile, in the true ending, loses Akechi and decides to forge on anyway, at Akechi's behest. All very neat and tidy, all very poignant, one last little "your reality kinda sucked, doc" to the newly-employed taxi driver.

If Persona 5 Royal was the last thing that Atlus ever made that's p5 related, I would agree the ending being ambiguous with Akechi's fate would be fine. That bow would be neat and tidy. It's not like there would be any more screentime to explore anything else, so why leave that door open?

But, Atlus loves making spin offs. So they have the screentime to do more with Akechi's character.

Let's face it- Akechi learning to live, being given a second chance, even after he was sure he would die, is incredible, thematically. The gain would be far more than the loss of Joker's "oh no, my friend, what will I choose," because:

a) I would argue that it doesn't negate the choice itself- Joker and Akechi didn't know what the outcome would be, so the gamble is still there. It's still, "Are you sure you want to face reality, when the outcome is uncertain? You could lose everything, are you sure?"

b) Joker's character isn't just the choice on Febuary 2nd. He's more than that, he existed before 2/2 existed- the choice still mattered, but even if it didn't, he's still there. However, Akechi dying would, as Dorked said, reduce him to a plot device to further Joker's character without room for more. Not entirely, of course, but as we see more and more story post-p5r unfold, it's like; why leave that potential untapped?

obviously people can have their own opinions about what happened in canon, we could argue at length, yadda yadda- but I will go to bat against the argument that Atlus bringing Akechi back would be a bad writing choice. Like, they could fuck it up, but persona 5 is not persona 3. The death does not matter more than the potential. "What will you do with your future?" is a fundamentally different question to "how do you live knowing you will die?"

so basically I want an Akechi spinoff atlus please- /j (but if they did I would buy it immediately)

I think one of my problems with the "Akechi dying is better for the themes of P5R and Joker's character growth and mourning" is like... Okay, but what about Akechi? That framing makes Akechi more of an object to Joker's character, IMO, whereas I think that him surviving in the max confidants ending has so much fascinating potential for Akechi having to live with his mistakes and move forward. He went in expecting to die, to have a simple final act of freedom... But I think him being forced to keep living, to face every day one at a time, to find ways to make peace with what he did and live in the world is just infinitely more compelling from a storytelling standpoint. For Akechi, I think it's a better outcome because it's lacking in elegant simplicity. Even if he lives, he was still willing to die for the sake of everyone's freedom. His survival doesn't erase that. It may "lessen" Joker's choice to reject Maruki's reality, but I think it also makes accepting that reality incredibly cruel, when a strong enough bond with him is enough to save his life and make a miracle happen. Mona describes the world itself as cognition. In P5's vanilla ending, he says it was the PT's bonds that allowed him to continue to exist as a cat in the real world. Given the significance of a maxed confidant making him appear in the postcredits, I believe that it is very simple to read his survival being because of that bond. That wish that they both shared, as confirmed by the Royal artbook. If you prefer exploring the grief and mourning, that's completely fair, but I think there are many ways to interpret Royal's themes, and Akechi living in a harsh reality where you can't escape your past but you can heal and do better is still very on point with what P5R is all about. Unlike P3, which centers more heavily on death, P5R simply touches on it as a part of its greater narrative. And even in P3, you can save a certain character from death via player choice and connections. So, yeah. :p

[recklessinventor]

🔥 the lack of reading comprehension in the persona fandom :^)

or p5 idk

SEND ME A “ 🔥 “ FOR AN UNPOPULAR OPINION. Bonus points if you include a topic. ( IE. shipping, roleplaying, ect. ) - No Longer Accepting

This is playing with fire, ahaha....

I'm not the biggest fan of P5 - I prefer P4 by leaps and bounds. A lot of the characters in P5, just on their own, just feel more reduced to anime tropes to me and seem much more one-dimensional with some trauma shoved in to their backstories to make them more "likable". I, uh, don’t really like the Phantom Thieves (with the exception of Ryuji and maybe Haru and Futaba). As characters. They’re either really tropey or downright mean. Or the fandom made me dislike them aljglhjdflhjd, as in the case of Joker and Akechi (though rp interpretations I can and do enjoy).

But when persona characters are done right, they're done really right.

I enjoy the side characters in p5 so much - Hifumi, Mishima, Kawakami (without all the horny that ATLUS did her so dirty with), Yoshida...

Pretty much every character in p4 I enjoy too - with the exception of, like... Marie, and I think that's it. Even if I don't like a character in p4, and some are made to be unlikable, they feel like a person, and that's the thing that I think p4 got so so right that p5 kind of dropped the ball on.

The p4 cast and those p5 side characters just feel so real - and god, does persona get their human antagonists right. I've said this before and I'll say it again: 

People like Adachi, Namatame, he who must not be named, their actions made them relatable, and feel like people with very real struggles, but that does not justify their actions.

Everyone has lost a loved one and felt hopeless and wishes they could undo everything, thinking about what could have happened if they had just changed one thing. Everyone has tried so hard for something and no matter what they do, that thing they want and feel like they deserve and have earned just so happens to land in someone else's hands.

Everyone has felt so lonely and helpless and trapped in their life and they want nothing more to ignore it.

But not everyone did what they did.

And while this does not excuse their actions, it paints a picture for what could happen if a person with these struggles has that opportunity like a godlike persona just... drop into their hands.

And I think exploring the idea of what a person with that warped perception would do with that same unimaginable power that the protagonists get is even more interesting than the protagonists' journey at times.

Or even what that antagonist’s life would have been like had their life gone a different way... or what happens afterward, and that power could help them move on and grow - I need to reiterate. Not be redeemed.

Grow.

(You should know all that, though, I write Adachi, as well as him after prison and him in AUs where the question is "what could he be if he hadn't boxed himself into that isolated, denying corner?")

[allykakamatsu]

Hypothetical P5A

Okay, gonna make this clear right up front, I wanted to make this post for a while but the main reason I decided to do it now is because the Atlus announcement thing is almost here, and also cause I saw a video on this topic by Thorgi’s Arcade (go watch it btw it’s good) and while I agree with a lot of what he said, there’s also some things I’d change, not just cause I disagree, but also cause I think it would be fun. Anyway enough beating around the bush, let’s do this

Gameplay

I’m a firm believer in the phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the Arena games are already really good so not much to change. That being said, I still wanna change some things. First off though, we are keeping this 1 vs 1, no tag team matches. The arena games already have a lot of Mechanics going on and trying to keep everything as well as some new stuff WHILE adding a tag team button, yeah no let’s not outside of maybe a bonus mode.

This means I can’t add Batton Pass in as a new mechanic to represent P5, but I have a solution, that being Technicals. Status ailments already exist in this game, so how about when you inflict one and do a specific combo you do more damage, also providing risk vs reward as the player with the status will have a better idea of what the opponent will do making them more predictable. Also as for Persona’s, mostly everyone’s will be fully evolved, minus Yu cause him getting a final boss persona normally is a tad to OP, meanwhile the P5 characters will have their starting Persona’s, but they will evolve for big moves, like awakened mode supers and instant kills

I’m also borrowing Thorgi’s Arcade idea of having supports giving a slight buff in battle, like if you pick Fuuka your meter can build faster for a bit, meanwhile if you pick Futaba you’ll get an attack and defence buff. It’s the fairest way to include them without having to make them playable. I know Rise is already playable but this roster is going to have to be small as it is, and being a support doesn’t mean you can’t be DLC later.

Also, we’re not bringing back the Shadow Characters, just, we are not dealing with the likes of Shadow Naoto again.

:readmore:

Story

I am about to cop out a bit here, but Thorgi’s Arcade video had a really good idea for the story so I’ll just link it here https://youtu.be/yyB5rEM9UVU

To summarise for people who don’t want to watch, Nyarlathotep, the main villain from the Persona 2 games, has been gaining strength from all the suffering humanity has gone through due to 3, 4 and 5, and has gained enough strength to create a new Joker to try finish what he started and destroy the world. Mitsuru might think the Phantom Thieves are behind it cause this is clearly persona related and the fact that the leader of the PT’s is also named Joker is public knowledge, Naoto gets largely the same idea, Katsuya and Maya decide to have their own investigation, meanwhile the Phantom Thieves are trying to prove their innocence and help save the world. Nice excuse to bring everyone together, but who will the everyone be?

Base Roster

Okay, I know the dream is getting everyone from Ultimax back plus the new P5 characters, but given Arc System’s standard for small base rosters, I’m not holding my breath. The ideal would be everyone plus who I’m about to say for P2 and P5, but I’m keeping it… somewhat realistic. Anyway onto the actual size, 16 seems fair enough. One more than the most recent Guilty Gear game for a series that had pretty big success so that sound fair enough. Let’s get the obvious out of the way though, all the base 8 Phantom Thieves besides Futaba are making the cut

Okay so that’s obvious but how will they play? Starting off with Ren/Joker, Smash Bros already laid a great foundation with him being very fast on the ground and in the air plus being great at combos, so I see no reason to change that. Also no need for him to be a Jack of all trades either cause spoilers, Yu is coming back and he already fills that role.

As for the others, Ryuji I can see being a slugger charge hybrid. Basically starting out he hits pretty hard but is a bit on the slow side to compensate, but just like any good athlete, give him a chance to warm up, ie do a charge input, and he becomes a lot faster and has better combo potential. Or we could make him a toned down version of Little Mac where he’s great on the ground but he’s in trouble the second aerial combat is involved. Then there’s Morgana who with his ability to turn into cars and the fact he introduces thief tools like smoke bombs, I can see him being a faster but frailer successor to Teddie.

Then there’s Ann who, no doubt, she’s a Zoner, and with her fire she’ll be Yukiko’s sort of successor. However instead of healing, I’d implement the fact that she learns concentrate and have it so the more she charges it up, the stronger her attacks get, but the Meter will gradually go down over the match. Yusuke, as tempting as it is to cop out and say ‘have him play like Vergil in Marvel vs Capcom’, I have a different idea. Namely, take advantage of the fact that Yusuke can learn counter by having him be the defensive specialist, set up ice traps to freeze the opponent, and if they get close, he can either counter or go for some combos.

Then there’s Makoto who would definitely be a grappler. I mean, she practices Aikido and is really strong, she can 100% pull it off. Finally Haru…… TANK! I mean come on, Haru wields an axe, has a grenade launcher, and Melady is literally a dancing tank in a pink dress, it just makes too much sense. I’d also give her a bit of armor cause if she’s slow she at least needs a chance to get her attacks in.

Okay so that’s 7 out of our 16 slots down, and given that one slot will have to be saved for the Evil Joker who would be the villain, we’re halfway done with 3 games to go, lord help me.

Okay, starting this off with P4, I’m gonna give them more than the others purely because they were the focus of the originals and there’s less realistic cuts I can make compared to 2 and 3. To make things simple, every returning character would play the same, and as for the ones I’d bring back for the base roster, we’ve got Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Naoto. Why them specifically? Well Yu is the main character, Naoto being a detective would basically mean she’d be the one getting everyone involved in the first place, Chie is currently training to be a cop as confirmed in P5 so her getting called in makes sense, and Yosuke is the best investigator after Yu and Naoto, he’s always up for a mystery and the second he learns Yu is involved he’s joining in. I just couldn’t cut him.

Now before the really painful cuts, Persona 2 is really easy. Out of Innocent Sin party members, by the end of the series Maya is the only one left with a Persona, and Katsuya is not only older brother of Innocent Sin’s protag Tatsuya, but he’s also pretty important and a detective so he’s definetly the one Maya’s dragging into this. As for how they play, they both use guns like Naoto, but how I’d mix them up is with Katsuya, I’d let him attack while moving (unlike Naoto who has so stay still to fire) at the cost of less combo potential, meanwhile Maya dual wields her guns so she’ll probably play like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue where she’d more or less just use the guns to get longer reach melee attacks instead of shooting.

Now, for the hard part. There’s only 2 slots left, one of them basically has to go to Mitsuru (not that I’m complaining I’d probably add her anyway) meaning now I have to choose between the rest of the Shadow Operatives/SEES for the last slot. I narrowed it down to the 3 that were in the original Arena cause they’re the most plot relevant, but that still meant I had to choose between Akihiko and Aigis. I ended up deciding on Aigis though cause A, with Labrys not making the base roster someone has to represent the robots of the series, and B, with Akihiko currently pulling a Ryu by travelling to get stronger, it makes more sense that Aigis would be closer and easier for Mitsuru to call up. Honestly I was tempted to bump the roster up to 17 so I could have both of them on the base roster, but this is ArcSystems, 16 is already kinda pushing it.

DLC

Given that this is a modern fighting game, DLC is inevitable. However since this DLC will likely be like Ultimax where the story acts to wrap up loose ends and have a new story, it’s going yo be big, especially since there’s going to be a fight with Nyaraloptep, so go big or go home in this case. Okay so first order of business, anyone who was in the previous arena games who wasn’t in the base roster is getting added back in, it’s only fair. That out of the way, the new faces I’d add are Futaba actually being playable now and the big 4 P5 characters I skipped, Akechi, Yoshizawa, and Sophie. Before anyone asks though, Sophie was added into a Dragalia Lost collab with Koei Techmo not being credited so she’s likely Atlus’s copyright so she's safe to add.

With that out of the way, how would they play? Starting with Futaba, I’d think she’d be the resident puppet fighter, sitting on top of Necinomicon and only occasionally adding in some of her own attacks like a projectile. Also she'd also probably act as a bit of a grappler cause her Persona has tentacles (no hentai jokes please) which have long reach so that'll be perfect for it. Next up is Akechi who I can see as semi being two characters in one. My basic idea is that at first Akechi will be fighting with Robin Hood and he'll be a solid jack of all trades with a slight focus on rush down. However once he goes into his awakened mode he'll gain Loki, which will increase his speed and attack strength, at the cost of his defence, turning him into a glass cannon.

Next is Yoshizawa, or 'Sumi as I like to call her, and her thing will be she's the mobility focused fighter, namely constantly moving around the stage and poking at her opponent while doing it, at the cost of being frail. Finally there’s Sophie who would be a combo focused zoner, as in her standard projectiles (the yo-yo’s) wouldn’t hurt that much on their own, but she can string them together into the fancy yo-yo tricks to potentially do big damage. As for how much this DLC would cost, it’s going to be very big, so €25 to €30 sounds fair

I think that more or less covers my thoughts. I could keep going on about this for a while, but I think this is a good place to stop. Hope you like my idea!

[nightshadedawn]

Persona 5 Royal Playthrough pt3

I ended up going through two Palaces before I could update y’all. Oh well.

...Yeah, no, quit calling me Miss Special Snowflake's boyfriend. It's not happening.

Ryuji, Morgana, and Yusuke having a conversation in the laundromat: "It's like he's our mom," says Ryuji... the mom friend.

Every time Morgana is like "I have to turn into a human so no one else can have Lady Ann!" then expects no one else to hear him makes me laugh. Like, bitch, no.

I have the restaurant in my Thieves Den 'cause I like it. Yusuke, Ryuji, and Morgana are there. They're so precious.

I got a three in a row Tycoon on cutthroat!!!

Ryuji and Ann just keep going "Shoulda figured" and other versions of the statement every time I win.

Ann just rejected Morgana's feelings HARD. I am happy.

Ryuji is too good, honestly. Why would anyone not like him? He's... He's always trying to build the team up, make them proud of themselves and what they've done. I will admit that he has his moments of being not a great human, but they're teenagers who were given absurd powers, so honestly, can you blame them?

I didn't know darts was an actual minigame! There's so many minigames. I'm so happy.

I don't like Akechi. I don't know why some people do. Like, his death scene was a bit... too late for a redemption for me, right after he tried to kill Joker, several times. His pain is understandable, but still... I can't.

Their "two sides of the same coin" also doesn't seem particularly fair. It's totally uneven in everything but color schemes.

Guys, GUYS, please, PLEASE decide whether you're going to react to my teasing or not.

"We don't have to deal with them directly," Ryuji says joyfully about the mafia. Oh you sweet, sweet, innocent child, if only you knew what I do.

I literally can't play this game around anyone else because I tend to yell "BABY!" to Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke and "BITCH" or "FUCKER" to... a rather long list of villains in this game... and Makoto.

I can literally feel Yusuke's anxiety about his painting when you take him to Leblanc to see Sayuri.

How can you say Yusuke isn't gay when he says everything I do is beautiful?

I love Ryuji's 9th social link. It's LITERALLY written like a confession scene. This also means I kinda hate it because... I can't date him.

Also... PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI

I actually kinda thought that the new scene for Ryuji being a crossdresser is kinda funny??? Is this bad??? I wanna see him in a dress, tho. I gotta agree, he'd be a natural. Not the like, painfully obviously not taking it seriously from the dancing game, though.

Though I do think it's valid that he freaks out when two strange adults come up to him and try to take him somewhere, especially in a place known for being shady, and at night.

...When Ryuji complains about it, I do feel bad about ditching him. Then again, I blame the cat.

Ryuji may be my ideal type on paper, but I'm also highly attracted to Yusuke and this is so totally unfair.

*softly chanting* butlers butlers butlers butlers

Don't mind me just... *makes meticulous plot to avoid having Makoto join the team that i may or may not write a fanfic about*

Makoto is one dumbass bitch. Like, honestly, there's nothing she does that's in any way remotely smart.

...I thought I'd just skip Makoto's scenes until she became relevant, but here I am, still skipping her scenes. Does that mean she’s still irreleveant?

"Witch" I suggest, and Makoto complains! "Would you prefer "Bitch"? I can use that too.

I put Yusuke on the team in the middle of the palace through settings, replacing Morgana, who had been standing right behind me. Which made Yusuke stand right behind me. It looked like he was holding onto my waist and standing uncomfortably close. Bro, babe, I love you, but not in front of my boyfriend and girlfriend!

Just accept the compliment, guys, I'm not going to compliment Queen.

...Opening chests with Ann or Ryuji is just so sweet because they're so affectionate and touchy feely. Especially Ryuji.

Math. Fucking. Sucks. I should not have to use math in a game. I hate this. Obviously it's the Palace Makoto comes in that this happened.

Well, I finished the Palace in a day. I love the feeling. But it was getting close there. Joker and Yusuke were down to no spells...

...Yoshizawa hasn't showed up yet. When is she getting shoehorned in?

WHY IS THE VELVET ROOM RED!?

My very first playthrough I didn't execute a single execution except for the first one we have to do. It  really screwed me over my second playthrough...

...I broke the electric chair. That's certainly something that happened.

147 games of Tycoon later and I've only been a beggar 31 times in total, versus the pure thirty wins in just Cutthroat.

They're in their summer uniforms and it makes make miss warmer weather already. It's fucking snowing outside. Grrrr.

Beat Kaneshiro! ...Wasn't a fan of his new boss battle. I'm even playing on safe mode! But whatever.

Makoto is a DISASTER at Tycoon. She exclusively got beggar all three times I played with her!

...RYUJI YOU CAN'T SAY SHIT LIKE THAT AND NOT LET ME DATE YOU.

Ann, sweeties, baby, you're doing so well.

She confessed to me, then in the call afterwards it was basically insinuated I proposed... WHICH IS LIKE FUCK YEAH 'CAUSE SHE ACCEPTED IT.

It makes me think of the future conversation where they're talking about marriage.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed, l love Ann.

My next playthrough I'm not gong to date her, though. I'm a completionist and I want ALL of the possible awards. But... I refuse to cheat on Ann. So I'll date everyone else then just hang with Ryuji... despite how cringy some of the date things are.

...If Akechi wasn't, you know EVIL and tried to KILL ME, SEVERAL TIMES, I might, MIGHT, like him. But in truth, I think that's really just the Persona 5: Revival talking. We get... into some stuff during that.

I know that either Atlus or the translators know EXACTLY what goes on in the Persona fandom because otherwise "He's too pretty to be wrong" would not be an option when talking to the newspaper girl about Akechi. I have to agree with her that his looks aren't really, you know, awesome enough for that.

Also, I read it as "He's too petty to be wrong" at first and I think that's an accurate sum of his character.

YO AKECHI-FUCK I HAVE NO NEED TO SEE YOUR ASS LIKE THAT WHEN I HAVE BOTH A BF AND AND GF.

...fucker fucking giving me shit about my fake glasses...

If you COULD date the boy out of mod, Akechi would definitely be the one they were pushing you to date. Like Makoto. Or Yoshizawa.

But hey, at least I get to not be nice to him.

I remember seeing this picture where Ann, Ryuji, and Joker kept going to the movies together and seeing 3D movies, and Joker couldn't wear the 3D glasses properly because of his own. I keep imagining that picture during this event with Caroline and Justine.

You know what? Some people call Joker a loli lover because of them, but nope! He's just adopted two more siblings. That is my stance on it.

FUcking

Fucker

WHAT THE FRRRRRRRR

FUCK YOU ATULS OR TRANSLATORS OR WHATEVER

APHRODITE AND MARS ARE FROM TWO DIFFERENT MYTHOS. Aphrodite is GREEK, Mars is ROMAN. Their reversed are VENUS and ARES. USE ONE OR THE OTHER PEOPLE.

I get very pissed about this, and it's worse with Hades.

7/4 is the day I am screaming at, if you were wondering.

My dad asked me if the other students think Joker's stupid because every time I answer a question right they get all surprised.

I don't really like Makoto, as I'm sure you've noticed, but she was super nice about Ryuji's special move idea. And that put her ahead of Akechi in my book.

TESTS ARE NERVE WRACKING EVEN WHEN THEY'RE FICTIONAL

Yusuke and Ryuji are good boys, the best boys. And they're so awesome about their special move.

AND RYUJI OFFERED MONEY FOR YUSUKE'S FOOD. And implied that he did it before???? Ryuji, you best boy.

This boys' outing DOES make me happy, though. Like, insanely happy. Dunno why.

Maybe because Joker gets to be so flipping cheesy.

...fuck you, Yoshizawa.

HONESTLY WHAT THE EVER LOVING--- Grr. Too many choices while with her. Too many. OOC Joker when with her. 0/10.

I LOVE THE FESTIVAL PHOTO

And you know, it's really hard to choose between Lala-chan and Ann, but... GONNA TAKE ANN ON A DATE

Got her some flowers. Lets see if we can give them to her this time!

"Such a good FRIEND." Babe, we're DATING. For like, TWO WEEKS NOW.

AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO GIVE HER FLOWERS

Ann called Yusuke a pretty boy, but then she's missing out on the REAL pretty boy, Pretty Boy Ryuji.

Ryuji, why're you so worried about other girls when you've got ME?

"I like the shade." "What are you, moss!?" Oh, admit it, Ryuji, I'm growing on you.

Cargona. Snrk. Gods, I love you, Ryuji.

Dome town with Ryuji! "Isn't it all couples?" That's the point!

I COULD GIVE RYUJI THE ROSES!?

Sadly, I bought those for Ann. Ryuji, you get the noodles.

AND HE FUCKING LOVED IT.

"It feels like I really captured Ryuji's heart!" FUCK YEAH I DID

Gonna give Yusuke the bracelet when I get the chance.

Why is everyone color coded in the chat room? Kawakami, Akechi, Mishima, and the reporter are all ORANGE. What's the point? Well, Akechi's more of a golden orange, but close enough.

While Mishima is not my first choice for a date, he's definitely not my last.

...But the boy really needs some fucking sleep. He's not drawn with the bags under his eyes, but I can see them!

It's not fair that they give Akechi a kicked puppy sprite. I'm... goddamnit, they're trying to make me not hate him.

When Makoto doesn't know something, I'm brought great joy.

NO DAD MAKOTO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND ANN IS AND SHE IS LITERALLY R I G H T T H E R E

First day in Futaba's Palace! I've gotta say, this is my second favorite palace. Kamoshida, Futaba, Madarame, Sae, Okumura, Shido, Kaneshiro, Holy Grail. In that order. I HATE Kaneshiro's place and dealing with the Holy Grail. But whatevs, man. I love this game. (Vanilla, at least, this one is still on the fence)

I found out a cool little thing. On the uphill sand slopes in the town (don't know about anywhere else) if you're running and turn back quickly, Joker will do a little animation to steady himself. It was cool and made it seem, I dunno, more human? Anyway, while I was admiring this, Ryuji and Yusuke just stood at the top of the slope and Ann followed me while I was running. Best girlfriend ever.

Kin-Ki is looking pretty kin-ky if you know what I'm sayin'

Please don't murder me because I do terrible puns.

*we fall through the trap door* *Ryuji starts screaming* Same, baby, same.

...Makoto is seriously annoying. Like, she's got no business acting as familiar with Futaba's situation. The one who WOULD be the most familiar is Yusuke, and I'm glad he recognizes that. It's not the exact same, none of their stories are after all, but I feel like those two get each other better than even Ryuji and Joker understand each other.

Yusuke and Ryuji's special attack is THE BEST

Ryuji and Joker getting up close and personal in the shadows. All those fanfics coming true, man.

I thought Futaba was sloth, not wrath? Why are her Will Seeds called Wrath?

Beat it in one day! It's so satisfying to watch all those achievements when I leave the palace.

You know, I'm thinking of wearing the Christmas outfits for the final battle. Just to be kinda funny.

Spending a relaxing day with Yusuke after going through Futaba's Palace... kinda want to take him to the bathhouse to check out that new scene, but I also REALLY wanna feed the boy... gonna feed the boy.

Apparently I can only make 'decent curry.' Which is fine. Because "I" can't make curry at all. Joker, you've done much better than I.

THE DATE CHANGE SCREEN HAD A RAINBOW AND RYUJI WAS COMING OVER ON THE SAME DAY FUCK YEAH MY BISEXUAL BABY

...Broooooo, the way you talk about your manga is how I talk right before I start shipping.

Took him to the bathhouse, 'cause I don't gotta worry about Mama Sakamoto feeding him.

...Can I take Ann to the bathhouse?

Asked Ryuji to move in. He was all up for the idea until he remembered that I live in an attic.

I'm Charismatic now!

...I was all hoping Ann would stop by but then Akechi asked me out. Laaaaaaaame.

Ryuji's smile is so fucking cute.

...I say we just be honest, and everyone's so fucking stupid about it until Makoto explains it. This pisses me off. They're not that dumb... At least, they weren't until Makoto showed up.

Futaba's hiding in the closet. ...I've spent too many weeks making jokes about closets to not have a joke about it.

Really, Yusuke? You see those books and think she can't understand?

...Wait, that sassy tone of voice... You were TRYING to pull a reaction of her. I knew I shipped those two for a reason. OTP and BroTP. Doesn't matter, they're both awesome.

I love you Ann, but I don't think your situations were the same at all. It's not like both are valid and bad, but... different.

Joker is SO fast compared to the others, especially when he's speeding.

What the...

Holy fuck...

JOKER IS TOO EFFING COOL

THAT MOVE TO GET FROM THE ENTRANCE TO TO TREASURE DOOR? Awesome!

Damn, Joker has my heart too.

I kinda wish we could see Futaba's costumes in her Persona. That would be pretty neat.

The moment right before Wakaba appears is so aesthetically pleasing.

...Futaba being happy is almost enough for me to accept Maruki's offer, and I haven't gotten there yet.

Ryuji and Ann keep smacking each other out of their ailments. Like, you guys just love each other so much! It's awesome.

Joker has lackluster responses to Wakaba... I'm hoping that isn't one of those "Answer these wrong and you break her!" things... Not that I think I was, but still.

I liked Futaba's new animation for when she defied her mother.

I wish the anime looked more the cutscenes. I'm trying to rewatch the anime so I can pinpoint specific moments for future editing purposes, but it's kinda painful.

1- This is the SECOND TIME you've landed on Yusuke while running from trouble.

2- YUSUKE LET GO OF MY GIRL

No Makoto, I don't want to go see Futaba with you! I can go see her myself.

So, I like Takemi's new voice with her lines during this scene.

Sure, she collapses every so often and sleeps for a while. Stays like that for a few days. Sorry that I put her into a coma for a month, Boss...

SHE LOOKS SO CUTE WITHOUT GLASSES

Guys, we have a month. Stop worrying.

THE TWINS ARE SO CUTE WHILE HANGING ONTO THE BENCH PRESS

Damn, Joker's dying to the amusement of two little girls.

I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get results for all that training. But I liked the scene.

Yusuke just casually be lugging bigass paintings around.

Taking the girls to the church may have been one of the funnier moments. These cement them as Joker's little sisters. With Futaba. Damn, Joker, you got no brothers.

Yusuke promises to come by every day and we can tell him to take his clothes off. ATLUS, you have some EXPLAINING to DO.

..And Yusuke took it and ran with it. My sweet summer child, I don't think I could handle you in as little as possible on the day to day.

"The heat induced delirium made me think outside the box." Same.

Guts takes sooooooooooooo long to level up.

"Punish me more" he says, as if Takemi won't do it.

"Good god. Well, none of my medicine can cure THAT." AT LEAST WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE

BATHHOUSE WITH YUSUKE

Awe, he had fun. :)

[casualotptrash]

Fixes to the Persona Series

Oh boy I hope you all are ready to talk about this for the hundredth time!

My recent tirade about the FES vs Portable discussion started to make me think about what I think could be done in the next coming installments of the series to make it either feel a bit more fresh or just as an overall improvement. Now, I know many of the things I’m about to say have been said time and time again, but...this is my post so I’m going to give my opinion on this :)

Enjoy and feel free to vent with me about your biggest gripes with the series, because I’m always ready for a salt-fest.

(This post will pretty much have any spoilers about Persona 3, 4, and 5 (including Royal) so beware if you haven’t finished those)

To clarify right off the bat, anything I don’t mention in here as something I would fix I either don’t think it is a problem or I just happened to forget it.

1. Player Gender Options

(Royal Spoilers)

Starting off with a great one, I think that an improvement to the series would be to allow an option between a male and a female MC. I don’t think this choice would affect the story in Persona 3 or 4 very much (and we’ve seen that with Persona 3), but I have imagined and seen so many fanfics about how it would actually be a really interesting twist for Persona 5. For most of the story it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but it could impact the first palace so much. The first palace/story arc is already one of the best arcs in the game, so imagine if the player could relate to Ann and Shiho on an even deeper level? To be clear, I’m not saying the player has to be sexually assaulted or something, but I imagine Kamoshida would at least treat the player more like Ann rather than just a delinquent nuisance.

Also, and this just came to mind, but picture this: in the third semester Maruki actualizes things that he thinks will make others happy. Obviously, Joker and Akechi are against this. In the game itself there are a lot of clues to point that Joker does care about Akechi, and does want to see him again, but in the end they both agree that they need to fight for the real world that they worked for, not for a fake reality. If Joker was a female, they could still go the route of doing this (especially if romancing Akechi was an option? Or they just hint at them having feelings but Akechi doesn’t want to commit because he’s a self-loathing boi who needs to work on himself first).

Alternatively...what about a badass narrative of a girl, in a powerful position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, fighting against a man who believes he knows what’s best for her and tries to appease her by just bringing back Akechi? Kinda like a “Yeah fuck what you did, you just need Akechi/a man and he’ll make you happy” type of thing. Obviously this would all be subtle, because I do think Maruki has good intentions, but he also blames himself for all of the hard things Rumi has gone through and may internalize that as women needing a “strong man” to protect them. Of course this might seem too preachy for people, but I thought it was an interesting idea to run with and that some people could relate to the whole “Woman trying to think and do things for themselves? Nah just sit in your little fake world and be happy, thanks.”

(Sidenote, Sae would be such a good role model...after her change of heart of course. You crush it girl.)

However, I do understand that this could be a lot of extra work, especially when the game is so long and tedious. That’s why I would also be fine with the strategy of “switching off” per say. By that I mean if Persona 5 has a male MC, then Persona 6 would have a female MC, and if a 7th game was made (in 2040 or whatever) then it could go back to a male. This would eliminate the issue of having to record all the voice lines twice or any other extra work that would come with having to make both genders an option. Honestly I know this option doesn’t matter too much to people, they just want an MC who is either a self-insert or actually a character (more on that later), but I do think it would be a very nice inclusion especially for the female fans of the game. It kind of sucks that three of the most popular games in the series all have male protags, and the female protag who was introduced often gets shafted for very dumb reasons. (Oh no, you have the option to romance a kid that most people don’t even choose or like, that means she’s a p*do! :I I know this comment is normally a joke but seriously it’s not funny).

2. Setting of the game (not transfer but also maybe involve the other games?)

(Spoilers for the Arena games and Persona 5/Royal)

So there are two main points to this suggestion: where the game takes place and how it relates to the other games.

As we all know, the three latest entries in the mainline Persona series have all followed a certain trend. They are all high schoolers, who transfer to a town, and know basically no one there. This formula has been repeated for the last three games, and while they are still great games, I think this trend needs to change. Any amount of switching this up would be better than nothing in my opinion. For example, the MC could be a new college student who goes to a new place for college (if they wanted the MC to move somewhere), and there meets the party members who are a mix of people who also don’t know the area (new to the college) and those who do know the area/some people there. This would appease people who have been really wanting an MC to not be a high schooler, while also giving the feel of meeting new people and seeing a new place.

On the other hand, the next game could take place in the MC’s home town, where plot stuff happens and they connect more to the people they already knew (aka party members) to solve the plot stuff. They could be in high school or college, either I think would work, but it would appease people who don’t just want to be a transfer student each time and also have some connection to the characters prior to the game. However, this would be difficult to do given the current “flow” that the games have, that is that the MC doesn’t know anything and has to ask a million questions. It would be very strange to go up to someone you have known most of your life and ask them a basic question, which is why that style of storytelling(?) would not fit well with this and other methods would need to be used.

Now, for the second point, I understand that they don’t make strong connections to the other games because they want each game to be able to be played as a stand-alone, and not to hold people back by forcing them to play the other games to understand this. Makes sense, but usually what happens is that people play one game in the series and then try another game, if they really like the one they started with. After playing through the ones they want to, and if they like them, then there is an appreciation for the series as a whole. Of course Atlus sneaks in little references here and there, like having the P4 gang go to Iwatodai or some TV news announcements on P5 that allude to Adachi and other characters, but those cant always cut it. One of the biggest letdowns I would come to know is the fact that the Shadow Operatives are not mentioned at all, outside of those small references, in P5.

Persona 5 literally has the PT’s broadcasting all of their heists, and includes major government officials like Shido. There are also the mental shutdowns/psychotic breakdowns, which also have people confused, along with how the PT’s steal hearts in the first place. I don’t know about you all, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Shadow Operatives involved. This is like...literally what they were made for? Investigating persona/shadow activity and such, and we already know that the PT’s deeds reached at least Hawaii so it would be strange for the SO’s to have not heard anything. There are headcanons that they were blocked by Shido or something, which is pretty interesting to think about/develop, but it was only thought up to make an excuse for why they aren’t there. Persona 5 introduced a lot of people to the story, so yeah some people would probably be very confused about who the SO’s are and stuff, but it could payoff in the long run for long-time fans and those who play the other games after.

Depending on the story of P6, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to start including casts from the other games into newer ones...especially when each game introduces 8-9 new characters per game, and those games usually get made into spin-offs that include the characters made in the previous games! Counting only the characters introduced in the previous games (3-5), Persona Q2 has 33 characters (11 P3, 10 P5, 10 P4, and 2 P3P, this includes the velvet room assistants for each respective game). That’s a ton! Sure, having new characters each time is part of the fun, but I believe there is definitely a way to split them up. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue to have a smaller party member group (you can only have 4 fight at a time anyway), that way there is still the enjoyment of seeing new characters, while also filling up some of those spots with preexisting ones.

3. Characterization

This kind of piggybacks off of the second point, but personally I think they need to stop with the self-insert protags. First, like I mentioned earlier, it kind of messes up the “flow” of the game since they have to pretend that the character doesn’t know anything because the player doesn’t know anything (yet). For example, how many times did the option to say “Probation?” or “Expelled?” or something like that come up as a dialogue choice in P5? Too often, in my opinion. I assume anyone over the age of 15 would probably know what those things mean, but in case anyone doesn’t they have to make it an option to say.

Adding onto this, it also seems like people start to like the characters a whole lot more when spinoffs or movies/animations come out that really expand on the character, because in those games/mediums the player is taken out of the self-insert role. I would say out of the three games, the Persona 3 protags have the most characterization in game through their dialogue. I haven’t watched the movies, but I heard it fleshes the MC out a lot more. In Persona 4...well, I see what they’re going for but I also feel like Yu has the personality of a cardboard box. The animations definitely helped out this one, as did Arena, and I’ve seen other people agree that they liked Yu a lot more after playing/watching those things.

As for Persona 5, I think they tried to give Joker some characterization (and oddly enough “Joker” has a lot more to him than Akira/Ren, but he still fell more on the side of self-insert. P5 the animation is...of questionable quality, but I think Xander did a good job in the Dub (which is the one I watched) in trying to make him feel more like a human being. I haven’t played Strikers, but I assume it goes more on the route of P5 because you’re still controlling Joker. Oddly enough, I feel like the dancing game gave him the most characterization? Call me crazy, but his dance moves and voice lines just ooze of his suave, friendly, and supportive attitude. I wish that they took whatever those voice lines embodied and just put them into the game, because I would like Joker a lot more than I already do (which, to be clear, I do still like him a lot).

Although this doesn’t have much to do with the characterization, it would also be nice if Atlus could just put the “canon name” in the game while also still having the option to choose your own name. Again, this might add a little more work but maybe if someone chose the “canon” option then their name could be spoken in voice lines, but if they don’t then the names would be left out (except for text) like usual. Honestly this is mostly up to personal preference because I like some of the “not canon” names more so I would want to use those if I could, but I also don’t like having the characters just randomly cut off in the end of sentences when they’re saying your name. Just kind of breaks immersion, which is probably why I really like Joker because at least they say “Joker” quite a bit.

(Little rant, but why do the PT’s get like two group names? At first Morgana defaults to “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” but then when you get to choose the name of your team, that name is what shows up instead. However, everyone still calls you the “Phantom Thieves” and the gang refers to themselves as that too! I get naming the group is kind of cool, but I would have preferred if they were just called The Phantom Thieves (of Hearts) and that way their name could be spoken in dialogue too.)

4. Choices matter...please? (romance and regular dialogue)

This might be easy or difficult to implement, I’m not so sure because I’m not a game developer, but I really wish choices mattered more in this game. I feel like most of these suggestions (especially later on down the list) are just little things that could be added to the game that would really amp it up, and this is one of them.

When I talk about choices mattering, I do not mean that dialogue should be so open that there are branching paths and that your choices affect the story. What I mean is that you could choose two different options and not get the same exact answer. I get that this isn’t always the case, but when it is it feels very strange. In this same vein of things, please stop with the illusion of choice because everyone sees right through it. I didn’t really see this as much in P3, and I still need to finish P4, but it was definitely apparent with P5. I felt that so many times in the game there were two options that were just “Option A” or “Synonym for Option A” as the choices.

Along the same lines, I think it would be great if romance choices were actually acknowledged. Again, there is a little of this in P3 and P4 where some party members comment on your relation to the other party members (Ex. Junpei saying to take care of Fuuka if you date, Yukari stating that Akihiko probably wouldn’t want FeMC going on a group date if they’re dating, and Yosuke coming to assumptions about who Yu spends the summer festival with), but they are very few and far between. I also saw no evidence of this at all in P5, which was pretty disappointing. In fact, in Persona 5 Royal if you are dating Ann and go on the Christmas Date with her, she makes some comment about not wanting the others to find out about them. Like...girl, considering someone can finish Ann’s social link as early as June or so on NG+ I’m pretty sure your friend group would notice if you’ve been dating for 6 months?? I know that romance is definitely not the focus of the game, but if you’re going to include it why is it shoved into the farthest corner and never touched?

Don’t get me wrong, it is cute to see the romances in the game play out and such, but on the same hand I can see how much better it could be. In reality it kind of sucks to romance someone in the Persona games because no one acknowledges it, and you only get like 3-4 small scenes in each game to spend with them (beach in P5, festival in all, Christmas in all, valentines except for 3, White Day in P5R). Just imagine if you could take a walk in Kyoto with whoever you romanced, or were able to take your partner to the Jazz Jin in P5R and they would get like special date dialogue or something? Very very small additions, but it would go a long way in making the romances feel a bit more connected.

5. LGBT Romances

I went into this in some detail in Part 3 of my FES vs Portable debate post, so I to save your eyes from reading more I’ll just quickly say that Atlus definitely needs to add in more LGBT romance options because it’s ridiculous at this point. The fact that you can’t romance any guy (because all of the MC’s are male, this is not including the FeMC stuff because that’s not typical in the Persona series) but can have a whole harem (despite what they may do to you) is just ridiculous. They’d rather let you date a fully-fledged adult than someone of the same gender.

Also they’re cowards for scrapping the Yosuke romance and that’s that :)

6. Fixing Social Links

Link to the stand-alone post about this section.

I literally was going to include this in this post, but this section alone (which I knew was going to be the biggest) was almost as large (a few hundred words off) than everything prior to this point put together. I’ll make a separate post with just this section soon, but this criticism of mine can basically be boiled down into the fact that the main growth of a character should happen outside of their social link in order to avoid tonal whiplash in the story, and that this will fix the problem of some characters feeling “one-note” if you do not do their social links/confidants. Essentially, go back to the P3 method.

However, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?

I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.

I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear.

7. Have Characters Hang Out

This is mostly a suggestion based off of P5′s downfall in this aspect. I think that P3 and P4 did a good job at showing the characters hang out in other aspects, or hang out separately outside of the MC. P4 had a lot of good group hangouts, but not many scenes without the MC. P3 had the opposite where members kind of hung out together a bit, but also showed or mentioned them hanging out without the MC. However, P5 didn’t have much for the group hangouts and also I can’t really recall a single scene of the party members hanging out outside of the MC.

Along with all of the problems I mentioned earlier with the cardboard cut-out personalities, I feel that this contributed to P5′s group feeling a bit less cohesive. Obviously when they all hung out they acted like a real group of friends, but it’s hard to see it as legitimate when 95% of their hangouts are just meetings for the Phantom Thief stuff. The only times they hang out outside of the PT stuff is the TV station, the fireworks festival, helping Futaba + the beach trip, and the culture festival. Like I said, I can’t recall them hanging out together outside of being with the MC/PT business, although I could have missed some stray text message if one was mentioned.

In this aspect, P5 feels like a small step down from P3 and a huge step down from P4. I think some of the events in P4 are a bit unnecessarily long, but at least they go through the effort of showing that the group is also a real friend group, not just people trying to solve the murder. Strikers may be a step up from P5, but I haven’t played it yet so I can’t judge that.

Also bring back school trips to prior locations of Persona games. Imagine P5 group going to Inaba and it turns out this is the small country town that Joker came from? And they sprinkle in references to P4? *chefs kiss*.

8. Remove/Change Certain Tropes

(Spoilers for the babe hunts, stupid ass hot springs scenes, and Ryuji abuse after certain palace)

By that spoiler tag, you can probably tell that this is the category I’m most passionate about. I can deal with social links feeling a bit disconnected. I can deal with the MC being a self-insert. What I cant deal with anymore? These. Dumb. Ass. Scenes.

Let me explain (insert Sojiro voice here)

Every game has three main tropes. One, the babe hunt scenes. Two, the hot springs scenes. Three, one character being dunked on by everyone else. I’ll go through each, scream about my feelings about them, and why they need to change.

First, the babe hunt scenes. I don’t have much of a problem with this trope to be honest, I just think it could be done better in some games. I actually think the one in P3 was quite funny, because the group treated it like an “operation” which added a bit to humor. Truth be told, I was just a bit disappointed in P3P FeMC route when you didn’t have your own version of the “babe hunt” thing. I know Yukari and Mitsuru aren’t the types to go hunt for boys, but perhaps the MC could have suggested it as a fun idea. In P4, this scene happens in Okina and largely remains the same as the P3 formula, but I think it lacks just a bit of the humor that the P3 one had. Lastly, in P5 this scene happens during the beach trip but compared to the others it’s pretty...lackluster?

It shows a montage of Joker, Ryuji, and Yusuke talking to girls but no actual dialogue goes on. After talking to three or so, Yusuke disappears and this is when Joker and Ryuji meet the two “flamboyant” men again. This time, the men either chase them down or call after them (?) depending on if you’re playing Vanilla or Royal. I don’t like how they use these men in the first place, but on top of that it kind of takes the “babe hunt” out of “babe hunt” if you don’t actually...hunt for babes? Like no actual dialogue is spoken when trying to convince the girls, which was most of the fun in the other scenes. You don’t even have free reign to walk around at the beach, and the scene is formatted in a more cutscene type of way.  It just makes P5′s babe hunt fall flat in many ways, and overall I finished the scene with a strong “meh.” The only good things about this was watching Makoto and Ann defend themselves and Yusuke with the lobsters.

Now for the hot springs scenes....hoo boy.

Simply put, in my opinion, these scenes suck ass in almost all of the games. P3 is the least egregious in my opinion, for a couple reasons. First is that it shows that Junpei and Ryoji were kind of trying to peep on the girls, and Akihiko and MC were just dragged into it. They have some funny dialogue, and in FES and Portable they even included the option to try and evade the girls. I found the little evade minigame to be really fun, even though every time I can’t help but fail because I want to say “It was a cat!” I find it interesting that there is the option for the men to get off scott-free, and that their dialogue after the trip is over changes slightly because of this.

On the FeMC side, I also find it fun that you have the reverse of the minigame and actually seek out the boys. My only letdown with this entire scene is if the boys are caught. I get it, it’s supposed to be funny with Mitsuru executing them and such, but as a reasonable person with a brain it seems really dumb to me that Mitsuru would just punish all of them when it’s just Ryoji and Junpei’s fault? This is nothing against Mitsuru, but her actions just seem so...exaggerated for some reason? Like Mitsuru is usually smart, and even if she is embarrassed I don’t get why she would punish innocent party members. A huge disappointment for me was that the FeMC isn’t able to stop Mitsuru from doing this either. Not even a choice to try and encourage Mitsuru or discourage her (so both options would be available). You just kinda sit there and watch, even after Akihiko say “It was a misunderstanding!” or something. For me it was especially strange because MC was dating Akihiko at that point, so why wouldn’t I try to hear him out? Just struck me as kind of dumb.

If I thought that was dumb, P4 and P5 were out to really make me roll my eyes and sigh in disappointment. Unlike P3, which has most of the scene being pretty good besides the very end where Mitsuru punishes the boys, the P4 and P5 scenes are all bad. This is not the first time anyone has said it, and won’t be the last, but they aren’t funny scenes in the slightest.

In P4, it’s actually the girl’s fault that they’re in the hot springs when the boys walk in. They stayed over their allotted time and into the time when boys are supposed to be in there. So what do they do? Get flustered, yell at them, and throw buckets at the group. Oh, and they don’t listen to the boy’s protests at all. Really.

Who thought this was a good idea?? The girls even realize after that they were in the wrong, say they should apologize, but I don’t think they ever show a scene of them apologizing after. This whole scene, like the hot springs ones in general, are just exaggerated (ie. throwing masses of buckets) to be funny, but they really fail in my opinion. It just serves to make the player kinda angry (since they’re usually on the receiving end) and make the girls look wildly unrealistic and dumb. I have never really thought that needless physical abuse is funny, so these scenes are just the bane of my existence apparently.

There actually isn’t a hot springs scene in P5, but they did add one in Strikers.

If they wanted to still do these scenes, maybe they could switch from making it “just beat up the boys” into something else. For example, the girls could try to peep, or walk in on the boys. Equality y’all, sometimes girls can do those things too (but still don’t beat them up. Just don’t beat anyone up). If none of that happens, or maybe that’s how the scene ends, the rest of the scene could just be a chill, relaxing scene between those involved. Essentially, how the scenes go before the whole “lets beat up the boys” thing comes in.

Lastly, on basically the same vein as why I don’t like the hot springs scenes, I’m starting to get real sick of the “let’s shit on this one character” trope. In Persona 3, I don’t think it’s that bad because they kind of do it with Junpei but they also give him a lot of character development, and eventually the sort of hostile shitting on him turns into just gentle teasing.

For P4 I still don’t think it is too bad, because Yosuke is kind of the one being shit on but he also does the same to the other people in the group? I suppose the only thing that really sticks out to me is how Teddie abuses Yosuke’s wallet (making him buy/pay for a lot of stuff with his hard earned cash), but I also don’t like Teddie at all in the first place so I may be biased about him. Oh well, he still shouldn’t do those things and I don’t really find it funny but to each their own.

However...this problem walks and rocks the fucking runway in Persona 5. Namely, this happens with Ryuji. The most obvious aggressor in this is Morgana, because him and Ryuji butt heads so often, but the other thieves kind of do it as well. Obviously they don’t do this all the time, but it’s extremely frustrating when they do. Morgana getting into arguments with Ryuji at the drop of a hat get old very quick, and the other thieves poking a bit of fun about how dumb Ryuji can be is also not that riveting. Despite all of that, the scene that highlights all of this is the scene after Shido’s palace collapse.

You all knew this was coming, but I couldn’t resist talking about it. The scene is so tone deaf in so many ways that it takes away all of the emotional impact that they were trying to build. Even the first time I watched this scene, in which I didn’t think they would kill off Ryuji, I could still sympathize with the group being concerned about him. Then when he shows up they...just beat him up and leave him unconscious next to a pole while they walk away? Wow.

On all subsequent playthroughs I just skip this scene, but I truly cannot understand why that was the angle they went for. Were they trying to insert some humor right after an emotional scene? That can be done in certain cases, but....why??? It’s so unbelievable it’s almost laughable. It’s not even like the bath scene where the the girls think the guys are trying to peep on them. It’s simply because he survived which I assume is what they wanted!

“Oh no you made us thought you were dead (even though he didn’t because he couldn’t control any of this), we’re going to beat you up!” Now you just make the characters look like irrational idiots.

Seriously Atlus, stop doing this. In most cases it just serves to make the player kind of frustrated, and in this case it it literally takes all of the emotional weight out of the scene and makes me think worse of the entire female cast. Please. Stop.

Well that’s the end of that. I don’t think I said anything too revolutionary, although my opinions about the social links and characterization might get me some flak. I just want the characters to be more than one personality trait... This was a really long post again, so kudos to whoever made it to this point!

Next time, on Dragon Ball Z Casual’s pointless posts: something Persona related :)

[takirasu]

Why I cannot understand how a huge majority of the Persona 5 fandom ships Akira/Protagonist with Akechi if you’ve played the game and what is possibly wrong about it

First and foremost: I do not mean to offend or hurt anyone personally with this. This is purely analytical from the viewpoint of someone who is interested in analysing characters and character dynamics. The group of people mentioned that I dislike regarding this ship is targeted to certain types of people in the fandom that will be explained at the end, meaning if you ship this No, I don’t automatically dislike you and even if I would, who cares? It’s just me. I don’t know you and it shouldn’t matter to you. I also want to mention that obviously Persona 5 will get spoiled in this analysis as well as slight mentions and spoilers of Royal, especially the third semester. Read at your own risk! Without further ado, let’s jump into a very interesting dynamic between two characters that had potential, but – in my opinion – leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth due to what fans did and do with it most of the time and how Atlus ends it in both Orginal and Royal. I will try to be about this as neutral as possible, since an analysis shouldn’t take a side and then put my opinion about it at the end, because the aspects and whys about this matter more than one person’s opinion alone. Also, the analysis will help form an opinion and back it up. There is nothing worse to me than giving an opinion, but not having anything to back it up with.

To analyse the relationship between the two I will be taking important parts of the story in this dynamic and analyse it as well as analyse the characters briefly according to the situation and towards each other. I will be taking the Anime and Manga into this for certain parts as well. I would like to do a whole character analysis one day if I find the time and fans are interested, but since the main focus of this is a ship and what is up with it I will only analyse the moments that they either have together or that further underlines the topic.

 Starting with Akira, it is clear from the very first hour on that he has a strong want of helping other people – in need or not - and cannot stand injustice. To underline how important it is to him you have to understand that in Japan’s society it is considered incredibly rude to interfere between two adults in whatever situation given. It is not your business, like Sojiro Sakura – his guardian in Tokyo during his probation – explains to him and much more the player at the beginning of the game. In short, Akira knew what he might possibly get himself into. Even if Shido wouldn’t have tripped and hurt himself. Even if Shido wouldn’t have threatened the women to tell the upcoming police Akira apparently assaulted him. The only thing important to those who found out about the incident and know that he did not push him was still this: You do not interfere between two adults, keep your business. People who do that are considered delinquents and you really do not want this stamp on your forehead in Japan. Further, I assume Akira might be suffering from a Saviour complex. In all three media – game, manga and anime – he puts other people’s needs over himself and gets incredibly upset if he is not able to help someone or better, in Akechi’s case, save them. As helpful and kind a someone can be by nature, you have to understand that not everyone will either want your help or will be able to accept it. Not everyone can be saved and you do not have to save everyone. People who have trouble with accepting this suffer from a Saviour complex. A moment to justify both this and my first point is during the beginning of Madarame’s Palace, with one of my favourite quotes of Akira being,

“I want to help. I just want to be sure what we're doing is right. Trust me I'm not saying we should turn a blind eye and do nothing...”

After this event, Ann and Ryuji call him out for being both too timid and yet in haste at the same time. They’re barely out of the Metaverse and obviously have a private life that they need to care about when he already wants everyone to gather information on if Yusuke is really being abused and used by his teacher as fast as possible; on the same day. Again, he puts others over himself. While of course Ryuji and Ann aren’t any less concerned, to him someone might be getting hurt and there is no time to waste on matters like this. When they do find out through Nakanohara, a former student of Madarame, that he steals his pupil’s art, threatens everyone that leaves him and makes students even hurt themselves, Akira as the Phantom Thieves leader decide on saving Yusuke. Said complex also feeds his need of wanting to protect others, shown and explored more in two major scenes in the anime. When Phantom Thieves meet Akechi for their finale encounter they captured it very well. Akechi reveals he has the power of the Wild card, being able to handle more than one Persona, like Akira does. When the Thieves try to either talk to Akechi or attempt to walk up to him and handle it, Akira as Joker takes his role seriously. He tells the others, “He’s mine. Hold. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” knowing full well that nobody else would be able to take him on other than another Wild card. Another scene is when he protects Sojiro from a few police men. He knows he shouldn’t step in between two adults and he is still on probation, but the want of protecting the person that offers him shelter and that warms up to him is stronger than his own desires. He stands in front of Sojiro and shields him.

 Akechi on the other hand is one of the most interesting and misunderstood characters I have seen in a long time. While not outright admitting it himself, Akechi has this immense and unfulfilled need of being loved since his past was pretty much empty of it. His resentment towards Akira is fuelled by this since he sees how said one has a lot of supportive friends when he’s nothing special in particular. This possibly means that in Akechi’s eyes you have to have a certain standard to achieve to be special and lovable, which would explain the way he made himself for the public. He further insults Akira as a criminal who lives in an attic during their last meeting and asks himself what he has that Akechi lacks, not knowing that it is something he never grew up learning. He hates Akira, but deep down he does not. It pains him to see the exact opposite of himself and how out of place it is for him. Akira is nothing yet loved, while Akechi build up this perfect self that is special, but not actually loved. It messes with him whenever Akira is in front of him and does better than him. He is the reason he gets reminded of the things he hates the most about himself. Similar to Akira he is an outcast to society – just carefully sealed and hidden behind his Ace detective mask. Shido, who is actually his father and he only works with to get revenge on, did not care that he got someone pregnant and left, which lead to Akechi’s mother giving him away and committing suicide. In Japan these kind of families are frowned upon on, being the kid of a possible one-night stand gives no meaning to your life and only tarnishes the mother, which is most probably the reason why the women took her life. It wasn’t bearable for her in this society and she couldn’t life with Akechi’s existence. He was given from foster home to foster home, never had any parents that would give him love and that he could look up to as well as forming actual bonds with people. You see him both struggling to form an actual friendship with Sae, an adult, as well as adapt to people his age, for example the Phantom Thieves. He feels odd and has this unpleasant aura of superiority around him, since he has never learned anything regarding love and how to work and be with other people. So Akechi decides he needs to build his mask to be lovable to the public since his actual self, in his eyes, is not. He’s smart and basically reforms himself completely new for the public. His public self is near to perfect for the role of a student detective. Justice driven, charming, funny and smart. During the game while he is on stage it slips his thoughts during the moment everyone cheers for him and adores him, that none of these people know he’s an unwanted bastard child, which means that he does not think as highly of himself as the player tends to think at the beginning of the game. He is sure nobody would like him and he would never be able to become a detective if it was him as his true self that is worthy of nothing. These two things lead to him being able to be cold-blooded and cause the mental shutdowns, as well as try to kill Akira. First, he has never gotten love and affection. These things are needed for a child to grow and learn empathy, which Akechi lacks. It might almost sound mean, but from a neutral viewpoint this is why it was so easy for him. He does not feel for other people as openly as others do. Also, you have to keep in mind that every shutdown being demanded by Shido would eventually bring him closer to his goal. His father to acknowledged his existence in the perfect moment, the apex of his power, and to take revenge on him for the life he has to live and most possibly for his mother to be driven to suicide. Lastly important for this analysis, Akechi knew what he did when he decided to let himself get killed by his cognitive self, Shido’s so-called security system. First, it would have either been him and the Phantom Thieves who were the only ones able to use the Metaverse next to him and change Shido’s heart, or only him which means that there was a possibility to at least ruin his life and not make him the new Prime minister of Japan. He knows that they won’t kill Shido, but taking everything from him that is important to him, his only desire, and the reason Akechi had to live life like this to begin with seems enough in the moment he faces death. Second, he does not believe in second chances and he does not believe in forgiveness. Akechi’s believes that are present during the whole game aren’t just towards others, but also himself. He hates his true self the same way he dislikes Akira. Both his true self and Akira are nothing in society therefore neither worthy of love or forgiveness. To him, there is no other way to atone for his sins. When the Phantom Thieves defeat Akechi he states,

“You (Akira) are so lucky to be surrounded by teammates who acknowledge you. Once Shido confesses his crimes, you’ll all be heroes. As for me, people will find out my past deductions were just charade. My fame and trust will vanish. In the end, I couldn’t be special…”

The only place he could eventually feel loved was when he faked those crimes and fake investigated them, since they were his own the public didn’t know about. He could feel important and respected, have a place in Japan’s society while working on his goal of his father’s downfall. The moment the Phantom Thieves won over him, he knew this would be taken away from him since to him the only possible outcome of this is the Phantom Thieves winning over Shido and either turning Akechi in or Shido spilling during his change of heart. People relying on him and trusting him, people acknowledging him. That is what the trust and fame was about to him. The moment they meet in Shido’s palace and Akechi is defeated, it would all be taken away from him. Putting this together is the reason he decides to trap himself with the summoned shadows and his cognitive self. His father would lose everything that was important to him if he saves the Phantom Thieves and he has no reason to live in a world where he has no fame and trust from the public, since in his distorted mind he will not be worth of love and worth of existence. He wouldn’t be special. When the Phantom Thieves do reach out and tell him all the things they admire about him and give him a chance to join them against Shido, he laughs about them. His true self is out and to him, it is not lovable or special no matter what they say.

From the reasons shippers bring up for these two, Akira being devastated about Akechi’s death and wanting it revoked is a big one and the first one I want to analyse and explain. As analysed earlier, it is important to Akira to save others and help them, especially when they cannot help themselves. In certain parts, the two aren’t far from each other yet polar opposites. Akira knows that and despite everything feels empathy for Akechi after said ones tells the whole story. Witnessing someone’s death whether it is hearing or seeing it is traumatizing and it’s normal to think about it later back at home in the real world how Akira does, but taking his character analysis into consideration it probably messed with him more than it would with other people, like the other Phantom Thieves. In the anime, Akechi throws a chess piece with Akira catching it. Akira, who is not someone to have emotional outbursts, gets so worked up and angry that he hits the wall that came down in front of them with his fist before he quickly catches himself back in the role as the leader who always had and has to stay calm and collected. If you look at it, Akechi is the only one Akira couldn’t save when he knew he needed it and, to Akira, deserved it. Because throughout the whole game with so many different cases of people not being able to save themselves or being in unjust situations not once does he care about how the people are or if there is any certain character trait etc. to them in particular. Akira probably shares the same belief like his friends. Everyone is special in their own way and so was Akechi deserving of a better life like everyone else is. It messes with him so much, that in Persona 5: Royal, a game that came out 3 years after the original game and it is still tightly being fought about if it is canon or an alternative reality to which the developers have yet to make an official statement to, he tells Maruki, the school’s therapist who is interested in cognitive science, that if he could change reality, his wish wouldn’t be that all of this had never happened, but that Akechi would still be alive. While this is the number one situation people who ship the two use ever since Royal has come out, it just further underlines Akira’s character and my suggestion of him having a Saviour complex. He cannot live with the fact that he couldn’t save Akechi, when this is what the Phantom Thieves stood for. It pains him so much that his wish is actually beneficial to someone else. We know nothing about Akira’s past, but it is impossible that there isn’t something he wishes wouldn’t have happened that is outside of the game. Instead, he chose something that helps someone else and puts himself back to ease. He knows, this is what pains him the most and will for quite some time. Having Akechi back would ease his complex and give a person he thinks that deserve a second chance another tries. This is once more better shown in the anime during the last confrontation when Akira tries to talk to Akechi multiple times during Akechi’s small monologue, but eventually realizes it will be of no use. Akechi is too far gone and Akira tells the group to finish it.

Second are the moments we got early in the anime. While the game doesn’t allow this, the anime explores Akechi’s detective side a bit earlier and more for the viewer. In game, we only see Akechi working on the cases he created while he is actually really good at “real” cases as well and able to solve them. During Yusuke’s arc, Akira and Akechi work together on a few of those and Akechi teaches him how not to be fooled by rotten adults. This all goes quite wholesome, but at that point the interrogation nor the black mask reveal had happened yet. The story is early and fresh, not even having picked up the pace. It almost feels like Akechi either tried learning how Akira’s mind works, or honestly just wanted to spend time with someone he felt like was similar to him. All of this gets revoked though when he massively insults him at the end of the game, making it hard to put this in canon. It might be that Akechi was trying to give himself a chance, because Akira was probably the first person who could handle Akechi just like how he is and also accepted him just like that - since that is what Akira does with everyone throughout the game and also gets complimented and aknowleged for - but instead Akechi couldn’t stop himself and pulled through with the rest of his plans. Looking at it from another side, taking this from the anime into consideration makes the next thing and points even worse.

Last is the interrogation, probably one of the most well-known scenes in the whole game, that I want to analyse further. To begin with, Akira finds himself getting arrested due to Akechi’s betrayal. While it is not exactly explained how, it is obvious that Akechi lead the police in since only Metaverse app users can enter the Metaverse. If you have a non-user nearby, you can pull them into it. Akechi probably did this beforehand, told them to hide and gave them either a time limit or symbol. After the fight against Sae Futaba picks up enemy readings, so many that they’re being surrounded. Akira and the Phantom Thieves part ways and the leader makes all the attention go to himself so that the others can escape. In the end he gets ambushed, cuffed up and knocked out by drugs. What the player does not know is that the group had known about Akechi’s plan all along and they had to play along. All throughout Sae’s palace, Akira knew he would most probably be cuffed up by the end, but it was necessary to let it happen. Otherwise they would never be able to defeat Akechi. I would like to add that this in particular sounds pretty traumatizing and stressful as well. Moving forward and the Phantom Thieves’ plan succeeding, Akechi is unknowingly being dragged into the Metaverse. He outright plans to kill Akira, which reveals his true motive on why he worked with them on Sae’s palace in the first place. The Phantom Thieves are blocking his path of the mental shutdowns and destroying his father. It is so soon that he cannot lose due to them. He is smart about it and wants to kill their leader. Once again and as stated earlier, Akechi doesn’t feel empathy and he has killed before. He gets things done so that they are beneficial to what he needs to do further, just like how it was beneficial for him to work with the Thieves together for at least a while. Be that figuring out how they work, or just messing with them. What he doesn’t know is the person in the interrogation room is the cognitive version of Akira. He is only in there, because he just entered Sae’s palace and in her cognition Akira is in the interrogation room, which she does not have much control of. Therefore, it keeps being the interrogation room instead of anything Casino related. Akechi proceeds to shoot an innocent guard and then Akira. While doing so, he seems like on a high, fully enjoying it getting rid of him and it is almost uncomfortable to watch that is how good it is made. It is Akechi’s first time he kills someone in the real world, but it doesn’t seem to be much different for him. He shoots Akira right in the head when he has nowhere to go, tied up and completely drugged to a point that both in the game and anime he can’t talk properly and even passes out. The state Akira is in is portrayed very well and just underlines the atmosphere further. A murderer just aiming at their helpless victim. Akechi puts the gun in his hand to report it as a suicide and leaves. He never shows any remorse when they meet again, only throwing in that the two might possibly would have become friends if having met earlier. He does not mention the faked death, because there is nothing to say. It might be, because both know Akechi wanted to do it. It was necessary for his path and nobody, especially not someone like Akira, would be standing in his way. Shippers defend this situation, saying Akechi had to kill Akira. To some extent, I would analysis this as true and say that it was a possibly way of getting rid of the Phantom Thieves and continuing his plan, but is your first idea really murder to this? In such a special way? Concealing it as a suicide and not have any respect to the person you just killed? It is unlikely as smart as Akechi is that this was the only possible option he had regarding on how he would get rid of the Phantom Thieves or their leader. Killing the person is just probably the most convenient one to Akechi and again, he does not feel for others properly, since he has never learned how to. This is why he is able to plan this, kill someone he acted like a friend with, saw multiple times for weeks and just walk away. In conclusion that means it is not because he had to and also not because he wanted to in particular, but because Akechi did not care and therefore made it possible to just shot him and continue with his life. It is one of the most important scenes in the whole game and does a lot to the development for all three characters involved (Sae, Akechi and Akira) yet shippers throw it under a bus with the sole statement that he had to.

Putting everything above together, the major moments these two had, shipping Akira and Akechi is complicated and probably not the best.

To finally conclude my opinion to this. In another world, Akechi could learn a lot from Akira. He has a lot of empathy for others and wants to help, which Akechi lacks. It would have been good for him and the part where Akechi mentioned that they might have become friends if met earlier made me emotional as someone who does not support it in a romantic way. In this moment, I thought of them as friends. I thought myself thinking of what would have been if they had met one or two years earlier. Two people who get better through each other and learn from each other. As much as I love this character trait from Akira, I have had my personal fair shares that having this can be negative at times. It would be good for him to have someone that shows him the opposite or at least a middle path. Both characters go All-Out on this. It is either full on empathy or complete lack of empathy. Either you want to save everyone or you’re okay with killing whoever as long as you obtain your ultimate goals.

Many people have stated already that the ship is quite abusive. Anything that comes out of Akechi’s mouth towards Akira in both game and anime (I’m only referencing the anime since the last two times because the manga is barely at Futaba’s arc yet) after revealing his true motives, is negative. Either he insults him directly or the way he lives, just because he found someone that reminds him of himself deep inside if he wants to or not. That gives him no right to act like this, even when psychology is complex. And if you want to defend this, it gives him no right to shoot him and actually visibly enjoy it – which you cannot deny and a lot of people in the fandom stated as well. He didn’t have to, but he did. He wasn’t forced to, but he did it. I wonder if Akechi tells Akira he hates him for the fact that he did make him feel something. Not in a romantic way, again, but more in a way of empathy and this feeling of friendship and he knew he had to stop this.

There are a lot of good people in the fandom fan of his complex character. I don’t necessary like Akechi as a character, but I find him interesting and good to talk about. As for liking or hating him…the interrogation scene happened the way it happened let’s just leave it at that. Sadly, there are also a lot of people in the fandom who will shove this ship down your throat. Somehow, it is superior to them and it should be canon. I have seen so many tweets and Tumblr posts, especially with Royal and its’ third semester that genuinely leave me concerned. What started as 3AM ramble to my friend ended up being this 5000 words essay on why the situations and character traits stated above get taken out of context or misunderstood by shippers. It goes further when you find out that some people ship it because it is abusive to begin with. They acknowledge it and love it and while there are more important things in life than this, I just found it too concerning and also very annoying at one point, I had to make an analysis about it and clear some things up. I have blocked a lot of tags regarding this ship and I still see it every day in the fandom and get attacked if I say something against it, so I just made this  post, knowing that people will eventually get mad at it. But, I honestly really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed writing about Akechi’s character. He is interesting, complex and there is so much to talk about him, but do I ship him with my favourite video game character? Hell nah.

If you want to add something to this, feel free to. I also enjoy respectful and normal discussion about this! I researched a lot for this, re-watched a few anime and game scenes and wrote for a total of 7 hours. If you enjoyed it or it made you think a little, it would be kind to let me know. I haven’t written anything in a while and my last character analysis was years ago, so this was quite a challenge, but knowing how popular this ship is and how much worse it got with Royal’s existence, I had to put this out. I’m going to be honest here. If they would’ve met a few years earlier, who knows if this wouldn’t have become one of my ships (I don’t interact in a lot of shipping to begin with so), because the basis of it is nice. But then the actual plot happens. All this stuff from the interrogation until the end happens and shippers just dismiss it or try to make it sound less bad. Like it’s the actual plot. It’s there. This is how P5 goes down. Akira’s one of the most traumatized characters I’ve come across in fiction and Akechi does a fair share to that. Don’t just dismiss that so your ship can be cute. It won’t, I’m sorry. And if you want to come at me for shipping in general, I as well ship something with complex and interesting dynamics within this game. It’s appealing, but not like this.

 Thank you for reading this if you got through all of it! I seriously appreciate it and my non-existent sleep does to! - May

[misfit-writer]

it took way to long but I finally beat P5R

and I need to clear my head about this so there will be spoilers about the ending and some swearing and bad english

some people might read my little salty rant about Kasumi but there is more

I still think it’s bs for Kasumi to join the team only for the last palace she got so much hype but at the end she didn’t play such a big role, the fact that you don’t even need her max confidiant lvl to unlock the third semester speaks for itself, I guess. And that sucks because Kasumi is such a likeable character and I wanted to see so much more of her in and outside of the metaverse (give her some more interactions between her and the rest of the cast god damnit!) 

Maruki got those interactions jfc he talked with every teammember and speaking of him I wanna out myself as a huge Maruki stan...so when I saw him as a taxidriver my jaw dropped. WHY?! Not going to bash the job but come on man couldn’t Maruki and Joker just meet on the train saying thanks and that he either wants to meet Rumi again or move on from her idk but give me a little more than him giving Joker a free ride!  Oh and then Joker runs into Sumire at the station (I romanced her btw) and all she says is that he taught her to be optimistic??? P5R does it like almost every other persona game before (exept p3portable) where the choice of who you date doesn’t matter at the end/epiloge cutscene regarding the dialogues. 

At least Joker took his damn glasses off but he riding the train to his hometown seeing Akechi (that shit annoyed me tbh stay dead or stay alive but don’t do this whole “or is he?” crap, death fake-outs are getting old Atlus) and then his reflection as a Phantomthief...nah that aint it for me.  If you would ask me which ending I like more between P5 and Royal I would say the original P5 had the better ending, but that’s just my opinion like everything else that’s written here...

Eh...and some last words about Maruki I know I just talked about him but I must say that he is the first persona villian that I actually felt empathy (yes Empathy) for because, ah well I lost in the last 5 years many important things that I can’t get back no matter how much I wished for them and I also know that I will soon lose a very important person one that I was always scared to lose since I was a little kid. I know that death is a part of life and a reality I have to accept, I must face it but if Maruki would make me an offer of eternal bliss...yeah I would take it, no doubts about it. (I almost did in the game but it was very clear that this would lead to a bad ending). So when I was doing Maruki’s social link, I saw myself in him again and almost everything he said resonated with me. He was drowning in his own sorrow over the past and at least I can say Atlus did this one thing right with him, he wasn’t some that needed to be defeated but to be saved BUT NOT BECOME A TAXIDRIVER! BAD ATLUS! BAD! 

[tricksheart]

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 ).

[thoughts-of-a-bibleophile]

Oh my god, it’s time to scream about Kasumi.

Welcome to me being Back on My Bullshit, featuring Persona 5 Royal and hella spoilers until October. On this episode, we’re going to talk about Kasumi Yoshizawa and her awesome awakening scene because I have QUESTIONS.

So, we just going with her being a magical girl now? Because that transformation scene was unnecessarily over the top and ridiculous and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT.

Is this just the play on her being Cinderella/Cendrillon, with the fancy transformation and such? Does she have a time limit in battle or like a recharge time? Or am I thinking too much about this? Or is this just foreshadowing for future Persona games and characters to get magical girl transformation scenes? Because I am down for that. Give me DLC of Akira transforming into his Phantom Thief outfit with a good slow pan of his clothes and his hair doing the cool floopy floop in the imaginary wind. Give me magical girl Akira dammit.

The real question, though, is how she got into the Metaverse in the first place. This is all speculation on my part becuase I’ve only just gotten past her awakening scene, so I’m just theorizing what happens. Please don’t spoil anything beyond October for me. You can tell me I’m wrong about my guesses, but please don’t spoil what actually happens. Please.

Anyway, I’ve rewatched this scene a few times and paused the video to check the screen and there’s no Nav there; it’s just starting up by itself. So it makes me think there’s some sort of intervention going on that’s pulling her there because she’s supposed to meet Joker and Mona and her dead sister/her cognitive self? (And if that is her sister, that was morbid as fuck like Jesus Christ just damage the poor girl even more with a ghost of her dead sister why don’t you?) If it’s her cognitive self, then I suppose it was incentive to further step away from her perfect honors student persona (pun unintended.) Perhaps she’s another player of the game and it’s not just Akechi and Akira? She’s been way too important story-wise to just be an outside third party in the endgame. Adding on to that, the Shadow purposely killed the cognitive person in front of Kasumi, as if further pushing her to transform. And then the Shadow taunts her as well, not only with its own scorn but with the echoes of everyone’s comments. So clearly someone wants her to be a player in this game.

I just can’t tell if she’s on last boss’ side or the Thieves side in the end? Because from the first moment you meet her in Sae’s Palace, she’s not a member of the PT and doesn’t seem like she’ll be joining you either, but she also doesn’t seem antagonistic toward you, so I’m not sure what they’re going to do with her. I’m excited for whatever comes, though, because she’s been such a great, compelling character to follow. And it doesn’t look like they can really screw her up like Haru, either, even if you don’t befriend her, because she’s such an integral part of the story.

Also! It’s so weird that she doesn’t bleed at all during her transformation scene. That’s typically what happens when you rip off your mask - you bleed because you’re tearing away the mask on your heart and accepting the person inside, hence the persona. But...she just does her magical girl, yellow-eyes transformation instead. So either she has already somehow accepted her persona and is getting some weird transformation? Or maybe this was just a trick of the palace itself, making Mona and Joker see what they think they should see, another Phantom Thief? But then again she fought with you, but I accidentally saw a video titled “reawakening,” so now I can’t help but think this is all just a weird trick somehow or that Cendrillon isn’t her real/original Persona, like Robin Hood isn’t Akechi’s.

And the yellow eyes thing... Oh my god, she’s not just a part of the velvet room, right? She’s not a spirit sent down to watch over the protagonist and judge them, right? She’s clearly a human, but so was Teddie and he’s a Shadow, from what I understand. Did her sister not die actually? Or are they twins and Kasumi is taking her place in competitions and such so that they don’t fail? She did say “our dream,” after all... but then switches to “my dream” in reality. Whose dream is it? Logically it’s her and her sister’s, but i suppose it could be her family in general? Or...Maruki? Since she’s so close to him? And she’s clearly upset when he’s involved... Oh my god I really hope she’s not just some ghost that disappears at the end or whatever. DON’T DO THAT TO ME, ATLUS.

So now...I just have a lot of questions.

Anyway, I love one (1) girl and it’s Kasumi Yoshizawa. Thanks for reading and tune in next time for more screaming about fiction characters.

[takamakisu]

Kasumi should've been a FeMC.

I've been thinking hard these past few days and I finally have gathered my thoughts enough to write them down.

So, after P5R, I like Sumire as a character. She's a sweet girl and her backstory is very sad; but it feels like something is missing and I finally put my finger on it. She doesn't really interact with anybody besides Joker. Even with the whole Royal trio, we only get the crêpe scene and them going into Takuto's Palace together. And even in THAT case it's not really expanded on with yanno the relationship between Akechi and Sumire for instance, because he knows her dad. It's just "here's a reason to justify why Sumire and Akechi know each other and we will leave it at that and not delve deeper into their relationship whatsoever".

I think Sumire interacts with Futaba like... one time? And she speaks to Ann once too but there's no development of relationships deeper than a surface level and I think THAT'S where Atlus dropped the ball with her. She's not oversaturated into the team, which is good, but not good is she's rather left out so much it actually feels disjointed. Sumire doesn't join the team until January and even then it's strictly business and just "Okay guys we gotta take Takuto down." And that's another reason why imho while I'm not against the Joker/Sumire ship I can't really get behind it since they isolate her to him.

She doesn't hang out with him and his friends for almost the entire game; it's just him and her and Mona and that's not really healthy...? Like, good romantic relationships should have a sense of community. Your partner should know your friends and if you're on good terms with them, your parents/guardian too! No person is an island, and no couple should be, either. I DO like how you help Sumire with her sense of identity and being comfortable in herself, and her deciding not to rely solely on you and be strong on her own. That IS healthy and good and kudos to Atlus for that.

Okay, so moving on to her being a FeMC.

Sumire comes to Shujin on scholarship, so there's already explanation for why she's there. The story would begin perhaps with her getting ready for school and her dad takes her there and she says hello to all her teachers and meets Joker and then there's the whole Kamoshida incident and instead of going into Kamoshida's Palace in her case, she would talk to victims and try to get to the bottom of things. And all the while, Sumire feels there is something off with her, too....but she can't put her finger on it. She's having strange dreams at night and her phone's acting up and everything is weird.. plus her dad is overprotective so she can't be out that much, either. But she makes friends with the PT as much as she can (I hc Ann becomes like a big sister to her), unaware that they're the Thieves until October, when Takuto's Palace appears. Things then go as normal where she "awakens", but then later the truth is revealed and she, and you the player, learn that "Kasumi" is not who she thinks she is; and that she attempted suicide out of jealousy of her older sister and feeling incompetent, but her sister died saving her. Can you imagine the impact of playing hours as a protagonist and then getting hit with a curveball like that? It'd be insane.

Sumire loses her Persona, and then after having to be rescued by others decides she needs time to get herself together. During this section of the game you rank up Confidants instead of going to Palaces (her dad would be a Confidant and it would involve him not being so overprotective and them bonding healthy as a family) until January, when Sumire officially joins the team again as a whole. And the rest of the game basically plays out as normal. At the end of the game, Sumire moves away from Tokyo due to losing her scholarship since she only placed 3rd in a tournament, but she rides with Joker and friends to his home first as a sort of "one last trip together". Akechi survives the dream realm and turns himself, sort of like Adachi after his boss fight, and devotes himself to righting the wrongs he has done. There is also a goodbye scene to Akechi and he and Sumire hug while he and Joker shake hands. After everybody leaves though, Sae comes to the prison and Akechi is permitted to live with her on house arrest, thus giving him a positive influence to be around. And by the time Scramble comes around, he'll be out on parole and possibly an ally to the team.

And I think that's it!!! Let me know what you think in the comments, I'd love to hear your opinions.

[vicsep7250]

PART 2 OF THE PERSONA 4 + 5 AU BC I HAVE IDEEEEEAAAAAS!

Part 1 is right here in case the post got drowned in other posts .

Aight, so. Ideas involving the Thieves and Investigation Team after encountering the Dark Priest and Shadow Akechi.

During the fight, Shadow Akechi starts summoning other shadows and just starts causing them to suffer psychotic breakdowns against the Phantom Thieves while the Dark Priest fights off the Investigation Team. Unfortunately for the IT it’s been a good while since they’ve actually worked together and done anything in the TV World which is a huge difference to how the Phantom Thieves are just clearing out the groups of shadows that keep coming.

The Priest meanwhile is giving the IT a hard time, monologueing about how hypocritical they are, and just going on a tangent in just how they kept refusing to see the blatant truths right in front of the - about Akiren being the cryptid and other things that they really shouldn’t know about their personal lives.

It eventually ends when Shadow Akechi starts to rant on about how futile it is to deny their lose, and the Priest declares how they will bring them all to true justice, just as they have done for the past year.

So with the plot out of the way we can have the character interactions we want/never knew we needed. (All of which may or may not already be on @ren-amamiyaa ‘s blog) Aka the Kanji and Kanji 2.0 discussion of loving their moms and being gud bois, Ann and Rise going into topics of how they act in the work place and their social lives (remember how Rise as identity issues bc of her career ATLUS YOU NEVER RESOLVED THAT!), and the inevitable Naoto + Yu becoming incredibly destroyed at the fact that the Inaba PD screwed Akiren over and were under Shido’s thumb (I known this is really empty and sparse but just try and fill in the blanks here). Oh yeah and Teddie and Morgana being sorta-kinda-like Shadows and THAT talk happening.

So ya know how I said that the IT are a bit disfunctional now and are barely holding on together to save Nanako? Well imagine how they’re law abiding natures handle with the PT if they were “True Good” citizens, since they kinda are only law abiders (except Yosuke and Kanji but we forgive them). They might renew their bonds and friendships and form new ones with the kiddos, or they might seperate from e/o bc they realize they’re all really different people with different ideals and ways of life with the only trait they share being that they have personas and live in Inaba... and the team just gets woooooorse since now they realize they have no real reason to be “friends” and Yu is crying a storm behind his Narukami Deadpan Mask^tm.

Anyway here’s where things become Persona. The only way out is through the TV the Thieves came though bc Fallen Heaven (new name for new development and its open again hush) (also everyone ran into e/o in Magatsu Inaba ok? ok) but it has become completely different than what it once was when the kids went through it. Now the place is just filled with broken ruins, dark patchy dried grass, dried up rivers that used to flow through the place, cloudy skies and heavy rain are just pouring throughout the entire place. And amongst the ruins there these little buildings scatterd throughout the place ranging from nice looking nursery homes to rotting wooden shacks. Akechi goes silent and still every time they run into one of these places and says nothing about it to the others.

Oh did I mention that bc Nanako loves Loveline and Akechi is a Detective Prince (”You’re not the Detective Prince, Naoto is.” “That title never really held any worth to me nor did it really mattter in anyway.” “Well you’ll always be the true one and only Prince.” “They always like this?” “Honestly we have no idea with Moronji and Naoto.”) there are P U Z Z L E S and C A S E S to solve? Why? Atlus and Persona that’s why andnotbcimgraspingstrawsherre !

The Thieves + Akechi go through these places to find clues on not just this weird TV world but also about that Priest (bonus if we find anything on Akechi to help him) while the IT go off to find Nanako. Shadow Akechi keeps running into the Thieves when they find pieces to the puzzle, about the missing girl, about Akechi himself since he (begrudgingly) is starting to let them in for realzies, how Adachi killed people with help from a god (”Sounds about right” says Joker, Bowl Cut and co probably when through something along the lines of his adventure) etc etc. As they go through things, the buildings start to have mini Palace epsiodes and self destruct, Fallen Heaven looking very slightly more cleaned up each time to it looking less dark and Akechy (badum dsh) and back its ruined state.

With the Team they end up finding out Heaven is either big bc of Akechi’s influence, or it’s a lot longer than they remember. They mainly clear out shadows that end up showing up, but they’re all scared and hesitant to approach them, almost like they’re trying to run and hide to live another day. They only realize this when the run into a Shadow in a hallway instead of a closed room where it just books it. But wait that wasn’t a Treasure Hand the group realizes thanks to Yosuke’s astute observations on the Shadows and the Set. Eventually they find the glass panes of Nanako’s memories and realize they kinda ruined her a bit with keeping her in the dark. I mean what were they suppose to do, tell her about how she got kidnapped, thrown into the tv, got put into a life threatening situation with a monster formed from repressed emotions that put her in the hospital and then DIED FOR A FEW MINUTES WHILE THEY ALL ALMOST MURDERED A MAN?!!??!

While they go through the Set they start to hear voices of other people, a lot of people actually. They all sound like the people who ended up having extreme changes of character, and it sounds like they’re all pleading for... something. Truth? Justice? They can’t tell if it’s either of those things or just mmishmashed mumbles of the people. Anyways they evntually enter some sort of chapel room of the Fallen Heaven with these human Shadows of the people have extreme changes of character. They see that Nanako’s Shadow is in the center of all these people and starts to reveal all of the doubts and emotions she has been feeling over the years about the Investigation Team. It ruins the IT, especially Yu as he basically learns that his Lil’ Sis hates him and wants nothing to do with him anymore. Cue the Shadows melting (screaming and crying bc they do that apparantly) and a fight against uh-duuuuh I dunno... (*flings dart at board*) an angel. What angel? UUhhhhh... fallen... yeeee... canyoutellimrunningouttasteam

After the battle ends, the shadows all seperate and Nanako’s Shadow is nowhere to be seen amongst the ruined churchy room.

Annnnnd now Im burned out and need to think thimgs over again. Thanks to listening to my ramblings on @ren-amamiyaa‘s amazing AUs and community, and I’ll probably make the next ramble post... eventually... theoretically...

[mightygarchomp]

Why I Love Goro Akechi: A (Long) Character Analysis

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5 LEFT AND RIGHT.)

(ADDITIONAL WARNING: Due to how controversial Goro is as a character, I’m definitely gonna get people disagreeing with me, and that’s perfectly fine. Just don’t start tossing in death threats, kay? Kay.)

Goro Akechi. One of the most controversial characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. Opinions on him are widely varied; either you love the guy and feel sorry for what he’s gone through, you can sympathize with him but dislike the lengths he goes to, or you just plain hate the guy due to his actions.

Well, if you couldn’t tell from the title of this analysis, I’m in the first camp, and proud of it.

I accept the risk of an angry mob going for my head in saying that Goro may just be my favorite character in a video game. I love pretty much everything about him, and yet I’m actually legitimately angry at how Atlus treated the guy. Seriously, they had a goldmine here and they wasted it. But whatever, I’m not here to rant about how disappointing Persona 5’s endgame was (though if you REALLY want me to do that, let me know). I’m here to pick apart Goro Akechi. Just what made him into who he was? How did his newfound Persona powers affect the course of his life? And what lead to him pulling the ultimate sacrifice? I’ll be answering all these questions - and hopefully more - in this analysis on the dashing Crow.

Part 1: A Life Full Of Hatred - How Goro Became Who He Was

All of the Phantom Thieves have pretty terrible lives, don’t they? The death of Futaba’s mother gave her some pretty intense survivor’s guilt, Haru’s stuck in an arranged marriage with the worst fiance imaginable, et cetera. Well, I think very few people will argue with me when Goro has the worst of it - save perhaps Futaba, but she gets over her issues. That never truly happens to Goro, even in his final moments. And can you really blame him?

The basic gist of it is this: Goro was born as an illegitimate child who was abandoned by his dad before he was even born. His mother either died from childbirth or killed herself out of shame, which left Goro to be passed around from foster home to foster home by the court. Throughout his entire life he’s never really had anyone to call a friend due to being shunted around. And note that this is just what he tells you before you find out what he’s really up to. When you find out who that dad is, things get much worse.

Goro’s dad is none other than Masayoshi Shido, the main antagonist of the game and one of the most heartless characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. Of course, Goro resented Shido for abandoning him, but he couldn’t really do anything. I’m not completely sure how Goro managed to find out how Shido was his dad, but that’s less an issue with his character and more an issue with Persona 5’s writing, so we’ll skip over that.

A lot of people like to say Goro’s just a guy with daddy issues, but I’d like you guys to keep in mind that this takes place in Japan. If you live in America, then this probably isn’t as much of an issue, but in Japan, being a bastard child is a huge problem, to the point where you’re basically born an outcast. Japan has a family registration system called koseki, which - until 2013 - did nothing to protect against discrimination towards illegitimate children. And keep in mind that his foster homes were probably aware of this, so imagine all of the hatred and discrimination he went through.

Honestly, with this information, it’s no wonder he grew into the bitter, resentful person he was. Never being acknowledge by his father, having to put up with loads of abuse... his early childhood was a terrible mess, to the point where he seems to have little in the way of self-worth. He outright calls himself a “disgrace to the world”. It also puts his ultimate plan into perspective, considering this would destroy Shido’s reputation - and also any trust in government, which would throw society into chaos AND give him the revenge and closure he desired on all the adults who abused him.

Despite his princely detective mask and fame, he has some pretty deep-rooted issues to the point where he’s not only angry that the Phantom Thieves are “better than him” (as he perceives it) but also terrified. The few things he actually has in life - his fame and image - were at risk of being worthless, considering he perceived the Thieves as having things he didn’t despite him being much more successful than them. It shows that even with all this fame he’s not really that happy. And worst of all, he had no chance to change his terrible life.

Or did he?

Part 2: A Chance At Revenge - Goro’s Wild Card Abilities and His Father

Goro may have hit rock bottom, but he found hope when he gained the ability to use Personas - and also the possible power to get revenge on his father, who he was formerly powerless against. But he’s not just any Persona user; he’s a Wild Card. This wouldn’t be much of a big deal before Persona 3, considering from what I know everyone was a Wild Card, but after Persona 3? We never really got Wild Cards other than the protagonist, save maybe Adachi. And even then, Goro was the only one to actually use multiple Personas in battle. Or, well... two.

See, most people complain that Goro’s boss fight could have been a lot cooler, with him switching between Personas, but these people are missing the entire deal of the Wild Card. Goro was unable to fully utilize the power of the Wild Card because he had no bonds. Of course, you may wonder in that case... what’s the deal with his Personas? Which one is the original, and how did he get a second one? Well, my theory is that Loki is the original. It would make sense, given his whole deal of causing mental shutdowns and sending people berserk - the main thing he did with Loki.

Of course, in that case, how did he get Robin Hood? Well, my theory is that there is one bond he made: his bond with Joker. He’s legitimately regretful about the turn of events that leads to his boss fight, and wishes he could have met Joker beforehand. Morgana even points out that he’s happy when he’s with Joker. The other Thieves treat him with scorn initially, and by the time they start warming up to him, it’s not enough to get a true bond. But Joker was... well, depending on your choices, the nicest one to him. At the very least, he’s the one who interacts the most with Goro.

Of course, there’s probably going to be the inevitable argument of “you can still fuse Personas if you don’t have the Social Links yet”. However, one thing I’d like you guys to keep in mind is that we have no confirmation that Goro even got to see the Velvet Room. During his confrontation, his exact words are “Someone, be it god or demon, gave me a chance...” which implies that he has no idea how he got Persona powers. If he doesn’t have access to Igor and the Velvet Room assistants (notably, Caroline and Justine never mention him) then how’s he supposed to fuse new Personas? He had no one to guide him into believing he could negotiate with Shadows, either, unlike Joker. So it makes sense that the only Personas he have would be born from his own heart - one from his sheer hatred for the world and Yaldabaoth’s gift, and the other one being from his bond with Joker.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Goro’s plans from there: he came to Shido as an unknown benefactor and offered him his services. Of course, seeing as Shido saw him as a useful pawn, he accepted, and the two entered a partnership. Goro was effectively Shido’s personal hitman - and this started two years prior to the events of the game. Basically, Goro became an assassin right out of middle school.

Of course, the biggest elephant in the room is... if Goro is so sympathetic, why did he murder so many people, including being responsible for Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura’s deaths? Well, the thing is... keep in mind Goro has gone through a lot. His dad was basically responsible for his terrible life, and since we can infer he was regularly abused at his households, he probably became pretty fixated on getting revenge. Imagine not getting closure for over a decade for someone who made your life a living hell. Goro is very determined to get revenge on his father, no matter the circumstances. He pretty much had to do exactly what Shido told him if he wanted to get revenge. Keep in mind Shido is willing to kill pretty much anybody who isn’t useful to him anymore. One wrong step and Goro would probably be a victim.

Furthermore, another thing to keep in mind is that throughout all his live, Goro has been severely affection starved. He’s had no friends or family that really loved him. At this point he’s willing to do anything to get acknowledgment from someone even if it’s just for his talents. By the time he found a real friend in Joker, he thought it was too late to really change. Goro outright admits he just wanted to be loved and acknowledged by someone, but due to his own narrow-minded views and the refusal to accept the fact that he wasted two years of his life murdering people and obeying the person he hates most for nothing, his ability to back out is long gone. In Goro’s life, anyone could die.

The most important thing, however, is that even with Persona powers, he’s just a kid going up against a powerful conspiracy. What could he do to escape the cycle of abusive homes? The only real option he could think of to take was revenge. And honestly, I can’t blame him. Even if he’s done some terrible things, he couldn’t really be a hero in the first place, considering he didn’t even know stealing hearts was possible until it was too late.

Luckily, he did see the light in the end... kind of.

Part 3: A Desire For Redemption - The Lead-Up To Goro’s Sacrifice

With my personal disdain for Persona 5’s endgame, I won’t deny that Goro’s redemption arc could have been handled far better. That said, there are clear signs of it. The big question for this section: What built up to Goro eventually sacrificing himself for the Phantom Thieves in a situation that he could’ve escaped from if he had done something as simple as move back a little?

Well, let’s start with the most important part: his friendship with Joker. As you find out in Shido’s cruise ship, despite being a traitor, Goro didn’t lie about his past to Joker - he just left out the more important parts. For a guy who’s perfectly willing to lie and seems heartless, that’s kind of odd, wouldn’t you think? Why would he spill such personal details? It’s obvious he holds Joker in high regard, which is made even more evident as you meet up with him more often and rank up his Confidant. In the final confrontation with him, before he starts to get more hostile, he laments that he couldn’t have met Joker earlier, before he deemed it too late to change.

This carries further through the dungeon he joins you in. Throughout the Palace, Goro is getting hazed by the other Thieves because they’re onto him. However, as the dungeon goes on they start to respect him more for his wit and assistance. Goro was probably feeling good about being admired by people who aren’t complete sociopaths like Shido, and he no doubt wanted to hold onto that feeling, but ultimately decided to go forward because he had sunk too much into his mission with Shido. How could I assume this? Well, after he kills Joker and talks to Shido about the deed, he manages to convince Shido not to have him off the other Thieves, AND also ignores Morgana’s existence and lies about it to Shido - the man he’s pretty much the obedient puppet of at this point. That speaks volumes.

So what happens when the Thieves manage to convince him that it’s not too late for his life to take a turn for a better? Well, one beating-the-crap session out of him later, they outright admit they admire his strength and wit, but also gently admonish him for his power being fueled by hate and anger. Then they give him the option to join them against Shido - for real. A part of me wonders what would have happened if he was able to say yes before Cognitive Goro showed up...

Regardless, this leads to Goro pulling the ultimate sacrifice: blocking himself off from the party and performing a mutual kill on his cognitive self. We’ve already established the lead-up to this, but one thing I noticed is that Goro had an easy escape route. If he just moved a little bit - or, hell, even dived - he could have ended up on the other side of the wall and Cognitive Goro would have been unable to stop him. Why didn’t he? Well...

The biggest reason is that even if Goro changes, as many fans like to point out, his crimes aren’t magically erased. Goro is well aware what he’s doing is wrong, even if he considers it his own twisted “justice” at the same time. Given his demeanor after he’s defeated and the fact that he didn’t reform due to how much he had put into this plan, it’s easy to say he probably doesn’t think he can atone for his crimes with any method other than, well, death.

The other reason is also interesting: Should Goro have escaped, that wouldn’t have helped with Cognitive Goro. He’d still be active and roaming the Palace and could kill the Thieves. Goro’s intelligent enough that he probably considered this and wanted to remove the Thieves’ biggest opponent for good - and the only way to do that was by sacrificing himself.

Or, y’know, he just didn’t have enough energy to move out of the way in time.

Part 4: Closing Thoughts + Should Goro Turn Out To Be Alive?

This doesn’t really relate to his character, but I figured it’d be interesting to include. There are people who think Goro should either stay dead or turn out to be alive, but have to atone for his crimes. What do I think?

Well, this is down to some heavy personal preferences, but I think Goro should stay alive... but only because his redemption arc was pretty rushed due to the endgame’s rather poor writing. They could have done so much more with Goro, honestly, but his redemption arc just kinda happened - and what makes it worse is that he’s mentioned maybe three times max after his death.

The reason I think Goro should have survived his death is because he deserves so much more than what he got. His arc could’ve been absolutely wonderful with how complex a character he is. All he wanted was acknowledgment and love, and we can all relate to that, right? He may have committed some truly heinous crimes, but I think he would have turned out far differently with the right people around. Even if no one else will, I’ll stick up for him any day and give him the affection and respect he deserves.

Thanks for reading.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

I can see why people would simply characterize as pervert and be done with it, despite the many instances where he's an anti pervert during Kamoshida.

and they overshadow a lot of good Ryuji moments like Ryuji tanking a freaking Vorpal blade for both Joker and Akechi in Royal. Or even Ryuji's save after Shido's palace started crumbling.

the only moment that's not overshadowed is the fact that he said fuck, like for a "pervert character" he almost always default to "eff" instead of fuck.

Not even Ryuji's saving of Joker when Sophia fell or the many moments Ryuji saves the phantom thieves really get enough praise because "pervert"

He is both it and not..... Kamo arc, his CoOp, and most of Strikers iirc he is very anti-pervert. But sadly 90% of Vanilla/Royal spends their time making out to be a perv, and the anime just you know....jumps right into it in the Kamo arc (a whole arc early), dunno how the rest went down but.....8U

And I really, REALLY hate how they make him pervy, esp aimed at Anne. But I like it when he's, you know, not that (tho in Strikers I'm like "hmmm don't wanna hear it hypocrite" but considering P5, that's probably like the nicest gloves I have kjdsa;fkj). But it's a moot point, he's still a char I look more fondly on with P5 than other's, caveats aside.

But yes, he does get the butt monkey joke a lot. In a sense he's in a same boat as Yosuke. Both will be the butt monkey, EVEN IF they are in the right/not doing anything bad/being helpful (really on full display for Yosuke in PQ1, despite being butt monkey at least the cast acknowledges how much they love him.....tho it's not till PQ2 that he, and Teddie, get some freaking dignity back TT0TT). Unlike Junpei who is a butt monkey cause he'll make stupid jokes, or he'll be an asshat and be like "I'm soooo jealous, but why can't anyone see how awesome I am???? *proceeds to be the walking fuck up that Atlus seems to think Yosuke/Ryu are*" AT LEAST, if memory serves (and tbh I tried blocking this game out), Strikers treats Ryu with a lot more dignity (and probs PQ2, but I wanted that blocked outta my mind too u_u).

NOW, did they utilize him to his fullest ability like any good writer would, esp if they saw the obvious parallels? No. No they did not. Akira should've been a slam dunk but nope. But what am I to expect when the same writers (maybe?) think Goro and MC should be opposites, when Ryu and Sumi are right there for Goro. Of course they are the same writers who don't think to you know.....add Ryu to the list of taking out (")shitbag(")family members. At least give me the excuse that "he's too far out of reach" but even then I'll have question (how far can the Metaverse extend in P5??? What's the distance??? Is it only Tokyo? Did we even try outside of Tokyo???? ANSWERS I NEED ANSWERS! D:<)

Jesus the fuck joke, who caaaaares! DX Have him say it, don't have him say it. I don't care, just do something with him!

That being said, maybe it's a godsend. Because I saw what happened with Yusuke and Strikers klfjdsjf;a Like listen, I don't like the guy either, but the difference between me and chars in the game (other me being real) is that.....I'm not his friend. PT really out there not acting like Yusuke is a friend flkj;ksfj; Jesus they did him dirty, but I'm fine with it. I'm surprised more people weren't klfjl;ajsdflja

Tbh Yusuke and Futaba are also perverts. "No I'm not! I just love art-" I don't care. Don't objectify your friends (Makoto-Pyramid, "I was looking at the Pyramid" Makoto's bra strap is not a pyramid) or people who aren't consenting to your (Anne-stripping) "art" maybe? And Futaba? Leave Anne and Mako alone, don't grab them jesus. We should've left you in a basement if you were gonna act like this. Elizabeth? Eliza-ah there you are, can you PLEASE send the gremlin back to the real world? She's making everyone uncomfortable. >_>

[destroy-trash-boys]

people think this is just an akechi hate blog but i’m going to say fuck okumura, and i don’t use him as an example of akechi’s writing or character being bad, i use okumura as an example of atlus having weird inconsistent morality in p5 and how the fandom just went along with whatever canon said even while pretending to care about critical messages

i always said akechi discourse is mostly because the game couldn’t commit or decide to anything with him. i know part of it is fandoms are stupid and people want characters to either just be evil villains or perfect good heroes, and don’t know what to do with characters who aren’t either, but it’s on the canon to be consistent. the game can’t commit to its own morals or themes. does it want the pt to be a bit grey too? well, it presents them as in the right. can we talk about heart changes being just a different form of “death”, of someone’s self, much like what maruki was doing? the game doesn’t explore it and just goes “it’s not killing so eh, fuck it”. 

but back on topic, i don’t care about okumura. i especially don’t care for a game treating him like just a good father when every action they showed him doing wasn’t being a good father. he knew what sugimura was. he was fine with selling his high school aged daughter to a man he knew was a creep. he caused the death of his workers. in the current era where the rich got richer while working class people are suffering, i can’t give a shit when a game chooses to make this guy the one you’re supposed to feel bad for. even fanfics just write him as just a good guy, a tragic would be good father. and people can argue that victims in real life can forgive, or have mixed feelings, and i agree with that. but this is fiction, and characters do what the writers want them to do. it’s a choice for persona 5 to pick madarame and okumura and ignore what they did to other people, not just the party members who the audience cares about, and say they might not have been so bad. and if people want to be critical of other characters, we should be critical of this message too, just like we should be critical of the game letting you date adult women after the first arc is about a teacher abusing his power with students.

persona 5 is not a “leftist” game, or even a consistent social justice game. it has the trappings of one, and the aesthetic, but the message at the end says trust the system. it says some good cops could change the system, joker has to go to jail and be in solitary and no one wonders if prison abuse is an issue. it’s like persona 4 going back and saying the characters had to accept what society said was good all along. it’s a writer’s choice to do that. just like the writers of persona 5 chose to present it the way it did. it’s not really a surprise that the game’s whack morality winds up being reflected in the fandom, or attracting reactionary people who just accept whatever the canon says.

[lokiarsene]

I usually try to keep my opinions to myself on this blog--or at the very least, in tags where people can scroll past/ignore them at their leisure--but honestly I think the one thing that frustrates me the most about people’s perception of Goro Akechi is that they think he is one sure, solid, cemented character type. That he is this one thing, or that he moves from this point to that. The way I see it, that’s not strictly true. Akechi wouldn’t let himself grow beyond something that wasn’t only unhealthy for him, but not helpful either. He gets in the way of his own growth and progress--he’s the boy who blocked his own shot, and in a lot of ways is like Hamlet. That not only is why he’s so fascinating as a character, it’s why his fate is so frustrating and gutting, and why it’s so difficult for me to deal with.

(As a side bar, that’s always why I loved his relationship with Joker--because it offers him the chance to open up, to give in, to let go and be a little vulnerable, which is everything he needs. It’s a contrast to everything the true villains of the game set him up to be, which was all about taking control from him. Incidentally, that’s everything Joker offers to every S-Link he has in the game [freedom, release], so I fail to see why Akechi should be an exception?)

And it’s not like I blame people for their view of him. Most of the P5 cast we can say start at point A, and end up at point B. Their character growth, even if it’s strange or touch-and-go (or locked behind fuckin’ social stats, goddammit Atlus let me hang out with Makoto and Haru), or a revolving door (Ryuji), happens in a pretty succinct progression. And it’s tempting to view his starting point (a pleasant rival that is the moral opposite of the PT), who then “reveals his true colors” (not quite the case), and all post-Sae palace revelations as being his “end point.” But it isn’t quite a straight line like that. His progression as a character isn’t a line at all, it sort of... bleeds out and is a tangled mess. Like the boy himself.

Akechi’s doesn’t progress from any point at all, because Akechi won’t let himself do that. And that’s not to say he isn’t a developed or deep character--he is--but like I said, he is a lot like Hamlet. Hamlet refuses to let himself progress as a revenge hero, in a revenge play, and philosophizes non-stop in multiple Acts because he can’t not think about his situation. A situation that clearly left a deep impact on him, probably to the point of trauma. Hamlet even over-thinks about his thinking, and tears himself apart for not living up to the only demand of the hero of a revenge play: get some goddamn revenge. And when he finally does do something, he not only does the wrong thing (RIP Polonius), he just barely gets revenge at the very end when it hardly matters anymore, and when he’s already a goner himself.

Akechi’s problem is revenge and inaction as well, but it’s not his refusal to take up that charge and run with it, it’s his inability to put that weight down. Not until the very last scene with him, where we see him actively struggling against accepting what Joker offers, which is a struggle that only happens because it’s clear that that’s what Akechi wants. He wants to set down the weight he’s been shouldering. He wants to grow and move beyond--but he’s terrified.

Akechi has been holding on to external images and depictions of success/safety for years--good student, popular talk show guest, genius ace detective, almost an idol in the public eye--because having to face his internal world and all the hurdles in the way of actual growth and true happiness is too much for him to bear.

So when people try to depict him as this one thing (a liar, first and foremost; an intentionally maliciously manipulative person; someone who isn’t in control of his decisions and choices because of xyz diagnosis they’ve given him), I get confused. Because he absolutely is in control of the one thing he can control: his emotions and who he trusts. That’s actually the core of his problem: control, and having too much of it, to the point where he won’t even let himself move beyond his own defined limitations. He’s strangling himself and doesn’t want to realize that, not until he can barely hold himself together to pretend otherwise anymore.

This doesn’t mean I’m blaming him or anything. I’m saying he’s responsible for all his decisions, good and bad, but I don’t extend that to Shido’s manipulation of him, and I definitely don’t extend it to Yaldabaoth fucking with him as a wild card user. I don’t jive with victim blaming bullshit ever. When I say Akechi’s problem is control, it’s more like how anxiety and perfectionism can control you: it strangles and destroys, but it’s coming from you. Just like only you can heal and move on and grow--that’s why Akechi struggled so much with his natural inclination to accept Joker and the PT in that last confrontation. He wanted to, but he also wouldn’t let himself do it.

And this suffocation is born out of fear. This damned determination to keep himself fixed and focused on his path isn’t intentionally self-destructive--Akechi being his own victim is just the effect, the collateral damage of his decision.

My last thought to add is that I really hope/wish we get some kind of “come to Usagi/Sailor Moon” healing moment with Akechi in either a re-release or DLC, because as it stands right now, Akechi is a fascinating character with brilliant parallels to one of the best, most complex and difficult Shakespeare characters ever written, but he is without his own satisfying conclusion. And maybe that’s the point of Akechi--maybe he’s supposed to create this effect in you, the player, of a missed opportunity--but to be the one character who gets condemned and shafted in a narrative that bends over fuckin’ backwards to give creative, clever, stylish revenge to every other young adult who was wrongly used by shitty adults is just... a terrible choice by shitty adults. It’s not a good look for Atlus, and I have trouble believing that’s all they’ll give us for him.

[badlydrawndrawnings]

Of Character Analysis and Comparison For the Detective

Because someone put Bad Ending 1 on Youtube, creating early discourse on the Youtube comments, so I’m like ‘screw it, i’m posting this right now and it still has some parts unpolished since I used (and lost) multiple translations’!

Major Ass Spoilers for Persona 5 (and Persona 1, Persona 2, Persona 3, Persona 4, and believe or not, Shin Megami Tensei If)

Recipe: Goro Akechi (Akechi Goro)

Ingredients: Reiji Kido from Persona 1, Jun Kurosu (Kashihara) from Persona 2 (Innocent Sin variation), expired sugar, expired maple syrup, whipped cream, cherries. Substitutes can be Ken Amada from Persona 3 and honey. *squints*  Oh, and Tohru Adachi from Persona 4 and Ideo Hazama from SMT ...if can be used as substitutes as well.

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn it off soon afterwards.

2. Get about 2 cup of Reiji Kido, and put it in a large bowl. Specifically, 1 cup for containing Reiji’s backstory as a bastard child* to a rich man who ditched his lover because he can, and another cup for Reiji’s terrible lust for revenge via killing his father (or Takahisa Kandori in Reiji’s case, his half brother since their father is dead in P1 proper, so go after the next best thing). NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE LOVER (aka the mother) BE ALIVE FOR GORO. IN FACT, GORO’S MOTHER SHOULD RUINED HER HEALTH AND DIE DUE TO THE ABANDONMENT SHE GOT FROM HER LOVER (and general idea of being stuck with a child).

3. Get three tablespoons of being an orphan and pretty much suffering as a youngster because well, it’s not Little Orphan Annie.**

4. Stir the mixture together until it you can’t tell the two ingredients apart, and make sure he is alone for about 48 hours in the fridge so Goro can get a sense of resentment to others, desire to be love, and the will to do anything to get his ‘justice’ on his asshole father. You can leave it in the fridge a little longer than that (49 hours is best). He needs to be bitter and alone. Like, super bitter and alone. Like, so super bitter and alone he doesn’t think clearly and be like ‘hm, it seems I can’t find another way to deal with him because it’s not like I have friends or family to keep me on the straight path’.

5. Add one and half cup of sifted Jun Kurosu. It doesn’t have to be sifted, but Goro is supposed to look more fluffy due to his hairstyle. This cup should contain Jun’s status as a villain (or antagonist, whatever you think is the better term***), foil for the protagonist of the leading game (Joker/Akira in Goro’s case), terrible crimes they did (er, terrible actions for Jun as JOKER I guess since he didn’t kill anyone, only making them empty husks), and being helped (more like being unintentionally manipulated) by a god. NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD JUN KASHIHARA FROM ETERNAL PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE ADDED SINCE THAT’S THE RESULT OF A RESET CREATED BY THE INNOCENT SIN CAST AND FRANKLY, GORO ISN’T ALLOW A RESET (as far as we know).

6. Stir the mixture again until it looks like pancake batter. When that happens, adds half cup expired sugar and three tablespoons of expired maple syrup to make sure the sweetness is the right amount of awkward (Goro has a soft spot underneath his issues and flaws and will show it to one person, but will not admit it because when confronted with it, well, he’s super bitter and alone). Stir again until mixture looks like a sweet sweet mess. If you don’t have maple syrup, honey is acceptable.

7. Pour mixture into cake pan. No, the cake pan shouldn’t have parchment paper inside it. Bang the pan onto the table (or counter, or where you’re making this at) to make sure there are no air bubbles.

8. Turn back on the oven until it reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit again. Place the cake pan into the oven. Let it bake until it looks like it’s a fluffy burnt pancake because someone was supposed to check on it, and instead, managed to make him their personal yet expandable supernatural hitman (dad little’s villain is more like it...but isn’t that more of a female villain trait?).

9. After letting it cool for an hour, decorated with whipped cream and cherries. Take one slice from it, and eat it while trying to figure out your feelings. Once that is done, try to take another slice. You see that the cake has vanish.

If you don’t have Reiji Kido, you can use one cup Ken Amada (containing terrible lust of revenge via killing), but you got to put six tablespoons of being an orphan and pretty much suffering as a youngster. Also, make sure the mixture is in place into the fridge again for 52 hours so the mixture has more time to think about everything it can do dealing with his asshole father.

If you don’t have Jun Kurosu, you can use one and half cup of sifted Ideo Hazama (status as villain, even more bitterness at others around him, the mother not being in life-granted, Hazama mother just ditched him and took his sister away-,and strange vagueness for their fate like did  you and your sister actually just vanish forever) and three TEASPOONS (not tablespoons, TEASPOONS) of Tohru Adachi (foil to protagonist/got powers by goddess, job occupation, and terrible actions). UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU ADD ANYMORE THAN THAT (they don’t really have the same motives, and well, Adachi isn’t MIA and has a solid conclusion).

If you don’t have Reiji Kido or Jun Kurosu... well, use the measurements for the substitutes, but put it in the microwave before baking.

So yeah, that’s Goro Akechi (Akechi Goro)! He has lots of issues (like jc you ought to have therapy and legit question, does Japan has good therapy because if they don’t is that why he fell through the crack?), and while a victim of unfortunate circumstances in society, you little shit you’re also a perpetrator as well by making things worse like were you thinking clearly (answer: no). If your dead body was shown on screen, then I say you earn your redemption equal death. Sadly, you’re MIA for potential spinoffs.

Man, maybe I should make a recipeh for something else, like prompto^.

  \(oWO)/

*People either forget or don’t realize that bastard children in Japan and other Asia countries are treated worse than the West since over there, family's image and prestige holds a lot of weight (hell, if you seen any J-Drama or K-Drama that has bastard kids or implied bastard kids, you know they get treated like dirt). Sure, bastard kids aren’t consider a good thing anywhere in the world, but in Japan and other countries, like it’s the end of the world cause it can metaphorically destroy lives, and in Goro case, made his own mother kill herself from the shame and abandonment (Goro’s ultimate plan was to help his father get to the top of his political career before spilling the beans to the world, forcing Shidou to kiss his career goodbye). Hell, Goro is like, the Anti-Reiji since Reiji got lucky his mother decided to bear the storm and raise him, because I swear, Reiji could have turn out like Goro (re: might have killed more than just Kandori) if she wasn’t alive (she does ask P1 Hero/Naoya to befriend Reiji, and frankly, if Goro had friends before/during his revenge plan, they could have been like ‘don’t do the thing’...then again Kandori does die due to the P1 cast so maybe they would have help him with the thing?).

**I had three other articles about this, but I didn’t bookmark them. I’m sorry. You can type ‘Japan foster system’, and you can see some of the problems it has. It’s somewhat of a ‘blink and miss’ conversation with Goro in the game as it’s brought up once in his Co-Op/Confidant, but knowing some context explain (not excuse) why Goro did his revenge plan and not do anything else

***Oh boy. Let’s admit it, Jun did wanted revenge at his friends due to ‘Maya’s death’ when they were kids, and pretty much was villain/antagonist for 2/3 of the game. Yes, he was manipulated and incorrectly remember, but he was still a villain/antagonist and didn’t realize the truth until they beat the crap out of him and became so horrified with what he done, becomes the atoner. Goro is like the anti-Jun in this regard since Goro was only close to Joker/Akira and at best ‘hello...you’ with the others, and well, not MIA/dead. If Cognitive!Goro didn’t interrupt, it was obvious Goro was going to take the PT offer of re-joining them to take Shidou along side them (before he goes to jail because there’s no way he going to get away scott free). Even before Goro’s death, they admit they know how he feels and tried to comforts (er, cheer up?) Goro after he admits his life is just a bunch of bad choices (re: being envious of them having friends and fame of being heroes while he was going to get the short end if his plan work) and pretty much craps on himself (re: couldn’t be special, tells the PT it’s better to kill him so he couldn’t get in their way and tells them they should had killed him when given the chance right before he dies on them anyway). Hell, even after Goro’s death, in a group chat, despite the mix feelings, mourn him and feel bad for him (Yusuke pointing out he could have been just like Goro if he didn’t have the others stands out the most imo as it drives home the point that despite everything, he was like them) and fully put Shidou as the culprit to everyone’s problems when they confronted him about everything, from his crimes to the treatment of his own kid (logic behind this: Goro was the killer, but Shidou was the murderer as he planned it all).

^release the forbidden robbie daymond interview atlus because i swear to f*cking god i’m going to make more shitty ffxv jokes, not just relating to goro