#p5 spoilers kinda

[icedsoup]

ok now imagine mafumom as a bald middle aged man with a goatee

[eelektrossfan]

Guillotine / speedpaint below

Youtube Link

[dex1o]

the third semester of p5r is wild if you think about it from sumire's perspective, and that's without even getting into the whole sumire/kasumi thing.

imagine you wake up one day and the entire world's a little bit fucked up for some reason. you see a building flickering in and out of existence (the same one where you awoke to some crazy JJBA stand powers, except last time it wasn't visable from the outside). so you call your friend/crush (??) because he knows more about this shit than you do, and he shows up with the idol and ace detective, trademarked 'pleasant-boy' goro akechi?? for some reason??? but hey, if he knows about the metaverse then that's good enough for you. he's a nice enough guy anyway but then you get INTO the metaverse, and his outfit is the edgiest thing you've ever seen, and the moment you get into a fight he's releasing what looks like years of pent up rage by screaming and laughing maniacally while absolutely tearing through shadows. and hes flirting (?) with your friend/crush (??) the whole time

but while he's literally calling your friend/crush (?) a loser and an idiot straight to his face, the meanest thing he calls you is a scardy-cat. he never refers to you by your first name and always uses the honorific '-san,' even while he's yelling. he commentates on every one of your kills like a deranged and zealous sports commentator. you think he respects you (???) youre not sure

[chococrystal]

Oh, to be dealt a bad hand

[akechisstinkyfoot]

bounty

made this into a print!

[luniise-kel]

my sister put beabadoobee on in the car the other day and thus this was born

[hilacopter]

Episode 7: The Persona Awakens

+ from after I made the last one:

We got holdable Futaba emotes in the server and I use them. literally every day.

previous part

[crocrubies]

AI Heart

[maibeenot]

Take Your Heart!!

[emailsquid]

i think sumi is a rlly good inversion of akechi actually.

akechi hides his true self by being pleasant and agreeable, and sumi tries to do much the same. for akechi, its because he feels like revealing his true self will hinder his goals, and fears the retribution. for him the adopted personality is a curse he has to endure to get what he wants.

sumire is essentially forced to abandon her true self, but at her own desire. freedom from the burden of being herself is her end goal, working in the complete opposite direction to akechi.

between them is akiren, who strikes a balance between them. he never tries to abandon his true self, its able to come out in the metaverse and at times with morgana and the thieves. at the same time, he uses the same people pleaser tactics as the others whenever he talks to anyone, even the thieves. he seems comfortable with both though, happy to wear different masks in social situations but not wanting to shun his true self.

i think sumire's reaction to maruki revealing the truth is by far her best character moment. she's revealed to have such strong self hatred she'd prefer to just. not exist. and this doesn't go away, evem after rank 10, since if you take maruki's deal kasumi doesn't come back, sumire just becomes kasumi again (this kind of assumes that maruki's happiness thing takes into account the extremness of her self hatred, since it's not like anyone else transforms into someone else in his reality)

much like he takes away sumire's self hatred, maruki's deal removes akechi's external anger, turning him into the facsimile he acted as. maruki can't allow akechi's true anger and bitterness and trauma, so akechi's true self, that he wants to be, becomes that pleasant outward demeanour.

to conclude i guess i think sumire and akechi are good vessels to explore hatred, societal expectations and self acceptance. akechi cannot be himself because of his hatred, and how that conflicts with societies expectations. personal thoughts on societal and interpersonal expectations cause sumire to hate being sumire, and prevent her from accepting herswlf. (wow its the theme of the game. no way. sometimes p5 is coherent).

this is what sets them apart from the other thieves, who have generally accepted who they are and the fact that they will not fit into society in a conventional way. the royal trio forgo being themselves in order to fit more easily into society, letting society's expectations mold them into a shape that fits for their role.

this commentary would probably go deeper if i had more confidence and understanding on japanese societal norms, but from what i understand this seems relevant to japanese culture's collectivist tendencies, with regards to supressing your personality to fit in.

[onehundredfallenpetals]

Did a quick art exchange with @chatlote for fun where she drew the lines and I coloured them!! Her sketch is soooo pretty

[rrotostap]

They dropped out of Persona Champions to go on an adventure together :D (via Tactica DLC)

[artianwen]

gentle madman

[this was so fun to do + first maruki post of the year let's GOOO!!]

[smolstarthief]

I can't help but feel like not enough people talk about Maruki having a canon spiteful side despite his usual kind demeanor.

Like the man talked in detail about how he learned that his ex-professor worked for Shido and was part of the reason his research was stolen like something was gonna happen and then just goes, "Oh, I'm still here out of spite, nothing else! :)"

Like god damn! Bro was unexpectedly snarky but I loved it! We need a bit more of this there! Gimme more of this content and discussions! Just... Sir... SIR! O/////O

[golfishwiththebigeyes]

What’s that they say about eating your young?

tw: mild artistic crow gore

[eggs-can-draw]

Drinks!