#time to tag this with every variation of 'p5 spoilers' i can think of

[glimpseofamemory]

Persona 5 as antifascist political allegory

Tremendous Persona 5 end-game spoilers follow. Like, all kinds of spoilers for everything.

Friends, Persona 5 has some politics. I wrote a bunch of words about them for another site! But I thought I’d edit that post up a bit and post it here, too, because I suspect many others will find it extremely relevant. The long and short of it is, the entire last third or so of the game is essentially a leftist political allegory for the rise of fascism in Japan (and even abroad), and a call to action for us to rise against it. I’ll hide the Big Stuff past break.

Shido's relevance to this allegory is obvious, as a nationalist and populist right-winger promising to #MakeJapanGreatAgain. His whole story is a pretty direct jab at political corruption in Japan, and more broadly, the dangerous rise of “populism” around the world. Everyone loves Shido because he says he’s gonna fix everything and make Japan the strongest, most beautiful country in the world! He’s also a rapist and a murderer who’s really only interested in himself, but he sure knows how to speak to a crowd. The whole metaphor of a cruise ship of the wealthy and elite floating carelessly over the sunken ruins of the rest of the country is both extremely on the nose and extremely apt for what’s been going on in the world lately. But of course, taking down Shido doesn’t even really solve the problem. The people around him are corrupt, too! And they know how to play the media to downplay his confession and discredit the Phantom Thieves, how to control the narrative to make him look like a martyr, and how to push their agenda through anyway. Boy, all this hits a little close to home, doesn’t it? Anyway, time to go change the heart of society itself, because a full-on democratic revolution is gonna be the only way to change this. So, the Prison of Regression at the bottom of Mementos. The metaphor here is also fairly direct: society is afraid of change. The prisoners - us! the people of society! - allow themselves to remain "captive" because they believe that they will get what they want in life as long as they keep their heads down and don't try to challenge the status quo. Change is scary. The status quo is comfortable. Why bother going against the System, dude? The System always wins anyway. The Holy Grail is that status quo. The grail of legend is claimed to grant you immortality, or to heal all your wounds, or any number of miraculous things if you are to drink from it, fitting with that previous metaphor of people putting up with the status quo to get what they want out of their lives. However, the Grail is also sucking the life force out of all the prisoners. The status quo survives both off of our complacency - our willingness to let ourselves stay prisoner - and off draining us so dry we don’t have the energy to fight back. It’s hard to find the time or effort to fight the power when you’re barely making it by flipping patties at Big Bang Burger, folks. The game says that Yaldabaoth/The Holy Grail (they are the same being) is the Treasure of Mementos, and that it used to be just that - a Treasure. But society grew more and more corrupt, and our desire for “comfort” and “safety” grew so distorted and fucked up that The Grail became basically a god. I think some people, particularly those new to the series, interpret the way the game refers to Yaldabaoth as a “god” as if it were a god as we think of them - some higher plane of existence. In Persona lore, though, they’re really more like extremely powerful Shadows formed by the collective will of people. In this case, people became so dependent on the status quo that their collective wish for a world where they can just depend on the System and not think for themselves manifested into an extremely powerful Shadow, Yaldabaoth. Yaldabaoth (unsubtle metaphor for fascism that he is) at some point decided, hey, I think humanity might just be happier if they just shut the fuck up and stopped thinking for themselves and did whatever I tell them to. After all, he was formed by the collective wish of people who’d given up on going against all the problems in the world and just wanted to leave a peaceful life under the current order. But Yaldabaoth wants to be a “fair” god, so he goes up to Igor like, let’s play a game. Let’s give these two kids Personas and see what happens. Akechi will represent the current order (as he goes around murdering people in the Metaverse to help Shido and those in power), and Joker will represent the hope for people to change (as he uses his Metaverse power to help the weak and suffering). j/k, fuck that, I’m gonna kidnap Igor and hijack the Velvet Room and have Joker murdered if he’s too successful. Fascists don’t actually care about playing fair, it turns out! So, anyway, Yaldabaoth/The Grail decides to subplant the Metaverse into the real world, where Mementos and Tokyo become one. Giant ribs and bones and spines start bursting from the ground, blood starts raining from the sky, and no one even gives a fuck. I’ve seen multiple people saying the game doesn’t clearly explain why nobody sees what’s going on at first, but it actually does, and the answer is: they do see it. It’s just normal to them. Again, political allegory: the world is going to shit around us but we’ve gotten so used to it that we don’t even react anymore. But the Phantom Thieves and our confidants (here, standing in for those of us in the world who DO care that everything’s going to hell) definitely react. People, the world is literally transforming into a nightmare hellscape all around us! Why aren’t you all doing anything about it? So the Phantom Thieves set off and start killing some archangels, and slowly but surely, people take notice. Is that the Phantom Thieves fighting over there? Wait, is there blood falling from the sky? Oh shit people, are we in an apocalypse right now? As your confidants start spreading the word, and more and more people take notice of what you’re doing, they start waking up to what’s going on in the world. It’s a metaphor for political activism (and one which the game will revisit more directly in a bit). The battle against Yaldabaoth is a battle against the powers that be. The whole game, really, is the weak fighting against those in power, escalating from a creepy volleyball coach to the next prime minister of the country. The Yaldabaoth battle is more metaphorical. You aren’t fighting an individual. You are fighting the society that allows those people to rise to power. You are fighting the system that protects them and shelters them and lets them get away with all the shit they do. And it seems unwinnable. But once you’ve woken up enough people, and raised enough support for your cause, and gotten the votes— Did I mention this is all a political allegory? Because even the Phansite meter is used here as a political metaphor. Anyway, the point is, you can win against the powers that be. You can summon a ridiculously massive Satan from the sky and put a fucking bullet through the System’s face. If we all get together, and make our voices heard, and cast our votes, we can stop the distortions and save the world from ruin. The game ties this whole theme together with the final story, which is getting Joker out of prison. This is where all that metaphor gets put into actual real-world action. Joker is unfairly held prisoner even though he saved the world, and even though his original probation was unjust from the start. But the Thieves and your Confidants all get together and spread the word, and with enough hard work and activism, they get Joker freed just in time for his girlfriends to murder him for cheating on them. tl;dr the phantom thieves are all antifa SJWs trying to make the world #woke, the end

[papercraftcynder]

I started playing Persona 5 The Royal last night, and I have thoughts I want to get out of my head, so I'll post them here. This might also be entertaining for those who already know what the whole game looks like (I often enjoy the posts people make as they play P5 for the first time, too).

I'll start doing that in another post, though. This is just a heads-up for everyone who's avoiding spoilers. I'll tag these posts with every variation of P5R I can think of (including P5 Royal, Persona 5 Royal, and Persona 5 the Royal) as well as all those with the word "spoilers" added, so if you have any of those tags blocked, don't worry.

Since I'm still avoiding spoilers here, I'm going to refrain from checking any replies to these posts until after I finish the game (which will probably happen in a few weeks).