#maimai persona rambles

[maomaopilled]

DON'T PLAY PERSONA 2 THESE GAMES WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE I'M NEVER GOING TO BE HAPPY AGAIN😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

i just finished persona 2: eternal punishment and i need to throw myself in front of a train i am in so much pain.

(major spoilers ahead) my heart is literally splintered into tiny little pieces over 'other side' tatsuya. he just loved his friends a lot and didn't want to forget them (his innocent sin) and that almost brought about the end of the world AGAIN and now he has to go back to a post-apocalyptic world where none of his friends exist and most people are dead (his eternal punishment). IT'S JUST TOO TRAGIC MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT. and the fact that he willingly accepts his fate i feel so bad for him. this poor guy doesn't deserve this i'm literally sobbing i can't do this.

and even on 'this side' ... maya knows everything but tatsuya and the rest don't remember her and they never will. i think she made peace with it and resolves to move on but it's still so sad. i guess they can still all become friends again? hopefully?? i don't think they are at risk of remembering anymore now that the paradox ('other side' tatsuya) is gone. i know there's hope for a new beginning but it's still so tragic that all their beautiful memories from the 'other side' and everything they went through together is gone forever.

the main cast did succeed in fighting against a terrible fate and at least the others (katsuya, baofu, ulala) managed to work through some past regrets and move forward with their lives. but i feel like even katsuya will always be wondering about 'other side' tatsuya that he couldn't protect. and even though they won they lost so so much.

i feel like it is some kind of metaphor for losing the innocence of childhood and what it means to become an adult with all the regrets and disillusionment and shattered dreams and you can find a way to move forwards but you will always lose something along the way and you have to make peace with that even if it hurts.

but regardless i don't think i am ever emotionally recovering from these games the whole thing just leaves me feeling HEARTBROKEN like my chest physically hurts right now i feel SICK i want to give tatsuya a HUG im so UPSET what a BRILLIANT game 10/10 it ruined my life but the story and characters are so well written i need to jump from a high place

[maomaopilled]

now that i'm not totally crashing out over persona 2 and can think rationally about it the one specific thing i can't get over is how tatsuya's story is so unbelievably tragic but there is still something really beautiful about it. beautiful in a sad way.

(full analysis below, beware spoilers for p2 innocent sin + eternal punishment)

to me, innocent sin was about growing up and eternal punishment was about being an adult. specifically, that being an adult means you have to take responsibility for your past choices/mistakes/regrets and make peace with them so that you can forge your own way forward.

it's inevitable that you will have to make sacrifices or give up on your dreams (like katsuya) or make terrible decisions that you regret (like baofu) or feel completely lost and unsatisfied with where you are in life (like ulala). but that is never the end, you can still take ownership of yourself and your own fate. you can defy a terrible fate, you can choose to make yourself into a better person, take the shattered pieces of your life and build something new.

at the end of innocent sin, they had to make a sacrifice: their friendship and memories of each other to save the entire world. but tatsuya rejecting this caused everything that happens in eternal punishment. and you can't really blame him... he went through so much only to have everything ripped away from him.

the poem they quote in innocent sin is le calmant by marie laurencin: "Worse than alone / Exiled. Worse than exiled / Dead. Worse than dead / Forgotten." is being forgotten truly the worst fate? maybe it is for tatsuya.

maya asks them to forget her, then philemon asks them to forget each other. if being forgotten is worse than death, how can tatsuya allow that fate for the people he cares about the most? and for himself? so he rejects that fate and has to suffer the consequences. and of course, he feels extreme guilt that so many people are endangered because of his 'innocent sin' and he takes responsibility for it by trying to stop nyarlathotep. he ends up losing the most important people to him forever at the cost of saving them in an alternate timeline.

but in the end... didn't he get what he wanted? he didn't forget anything, he carries the memory of his friends and by doing that they avoided the worst fate: being forgotten. even if 'this side' tatsuya doesn't remember them, he does and that has to count for something. bc as long as he remembers it, their friendship is kept alive in his memory and isn't completely erased from the world.

and because of tatsuya, maya also regains her memories meaning that the memory also remains alive with her too. through tatsuya and maya, the memory of everything they went through in innocent sin and their friendship remains alive in both timelines. as long as it isn't completely forgotten, it still exists in some ephemeral form. and although it wasn't his intention, 'other side' tatsuya also avoids the worst fate of being forgotten as so many people now carry the memory of him: maya, katsuya, ulala, baofu, shiori, nanjo, etc.

if one of the messages of p2EP is that being an adult means taking responsibility for your actions then tatsuya illustrates it beautifully. his actions at the end of innocent sin have far reaching consequences but he takes responsibility for saving the new timeline. he takes his own fate in his hands and he ends up following through with his desire to not forget or be forgotten. i feel like even though his fate is tragic he can at least take solace in the fact that he carries those memories and if this is the sacrfice he has to make to ensure that his friendships won't be completely erased from the world then maybe it was worth it, in a way. and there's something heart breakingly beautiful about that.

[maomaopilled]

I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS and i can't get over how jun, eikichi and lisa agreed to erase their friendship but they all say something along the lines of 'i won't forget we will find each other again' and they believe it with their whole hearts... but tatsuya can't believe, he is too scared and doesn't want to be left all alone and he can't leave it to chance.

it fits with the theme of taking your fate into your own hands as in he doesn't want to rely on fate bringing them back together after he forgets them. he doesn't want to forget or be forgotten in the first place. and yes, it happened so quickly and he didn't really do it on purpose and it was wrong and he broke their promise but he sticks with the decision to remember all the way to the end i don't think he ever truly regrets it. he feels guilt and responsibility that other people have been hurt but i don't think he regrets remembering his friends.

the game emphasises that adults need to protect kids and their dreams and saving the world is too big of a responsibility to be left to a bunch of kids. tatsuya can see everything through to the end because he has reliable adults by his side and through the process understand what it means to be an adult and try to make peace with his actions and their consequences

now that i'm not totally crashing out over persona 2 and can think rationally about it the one specific thing i can't get over is how tatsuya's story is so unbelievably tragic but there is still something really beautiful about it. beautiful in a sad way.

(full analysis below, beware spoilers for p2 innocent sin + eternal punishment)

to me, innocent sin was about growing up and eternal punishment was about being an adult. specifically, that being an adult means you have to take responsibility for your past choices/mistakes/regrets and make peace with them so that you can forge your own way forward.

it's inevitable that you will have to make sacrifices or give up on your dreams (like katsuya) or make terrible decisions that you regret (like baofu) or feel completely lost and unsatisfied with where you are in life (like ulala). but that is never the end, you can still take ownership of yourself and your own fate. you can defy a terrible fate, you can choose to make yourself into a better person, take the shattered pieces of your life and build something new.

at the end of innocent sin, they had to make a sacrifice: their friendship and memories of each other to save the entire world. but tatsuya rejecting this caused everything that happens in eternal punishment. and you can't really blame him... he went through so much only to have everything ripped away from him.

the poem they quote in innocent sin is le calmant by marie laurencin: "Worse than alone / Exiled. Worse than exiled / Dead. Worse than dead / Forgotten." is being forgotten truly the worst fate? maybe it is for tatsuya.

maya asks them to forget her, then philemon asks them to forget each other. if being forgotten is worse than death, how can tatsuya allow that fate for the people he cares about the most? and for himself? so he rejects that fate and has to suffer the consequences. and of course, he feels extreme guilt that so many people are endangered because of his 'innocent sin' and he takes responsibility for it by trying to stop nyarlathotep. he ends up losing the most important people to him forever at the cost of saving them in an alternate timeline.

but in the end... didn't he get what he wanted? he didn't forget anything, he carries the memory of his friends and by doing that they avoided the worst fate: being forgotten. even if 'this side' tatsuya doesn't remember them, he does and that has to count for something. bc as long as he remembers it, their friendship is kept alive in his memory and isn't completely erased from the world.

and because of tatsuya, maya also regains her memories meaning that the memory also remains alive with her too. through tatsuya and maya, the memory of everything they went through in innocent sin and their friendship remains alive in both timelines. as long as it isn't completely forgotten, it still exists in some ephemeral form. and although it wasn't his intention, 'other side' tatsuya also avoids the worst fate of being forgotten as so many people now carry the memory of him: maya, katsuya, ulala, baofu, shiori, nanjo, etc.

if one of the messages of p2EP is that being an adult means taking responsibility for your actions then tatsuya illustrates it beautifully. his actions at the end of innocent sin have far reaching consequences but he takes responsibility for saving the new timeline. he takes his own fate in his hands and he ends up following through with his desire to not forget or be forgotten. i feel like even though his fate is tragic he can at least take solace in the fact that he carries those memories and if this is the sacrfice he has to make to ensure that his friendships won't be completely erased from the world then maybe it was worth it, in a way. and there's something heart breakingly beautiful about that.