#why do you hate your fans atlus?

[taldigi]

I think the reason Joker/Akechi is so popular (other than sadboy angst) is because of how he changed from vanilla to royal. Having Joker mess with his hair, giving him a boathouse scene, the double entendre of giving someone your glove being a declaration of a duel but also sometimes considered a romantic gesture, among other things made people feel as if they were leaning into a romantic interpretation of their relationship rather than the more nebulous original version. Then there's third semester, with Maruki commenting on their "unique relationship," giving the player the option to sacrifice reality to keep Akechi alive, and the whole Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming thing with the fairytale motif... it just seemed like Atlus noticed that a decent amount of people were shipping Akechi with the protagonist and decided to run with it. It certainly doesn't help that the English voice actor for Akechi that Royal's more romantic lean is "not thinly veiled." I still agree that fandom focuses on it far too much, though. Especially considering how much the game emphasizes that it can't actually happen.

ohh, thank you. I highly appreciate the reply!

I want to preface by saying that my reply comes from my experience in interpreting the game and how that's influenced my own opinion. It isn't meant to diminish the argument, despite any harsh wording, but to examine it through my own eyes.

I also don't.. hate the ship (I had been in the ML fandom too long to know that), but am largely overwhelmed by it's over-saturation and domination over the fan space and what I interpret as being... hugely out of character.

The kind of character I see Ren as being- outside his anime protagonist curse- is a highly empathetic (he takes books and media to heart, is able to empathize with the worst of humanity, and is able to touch the hearts of even the most prickly of people) and selfless person. Someone who would do anything to save anyone at any cost short of killing someone else! it's the reason why he's in Tokyo in the first place, and he doesn't stop afterwards. He steps in-between many many possible conflicts and puts himself in immediate and possibly fatal situations in order to keep his friends safe.

The whole premise of his story, and his ultimate choices, is freedom- after all- even if that freedom leads to pain... But and what is more confining, and final, and indisputable than death? Ren, a guy who chose to let each and every palace owner live and make them admit, understand, and face the consequences of their cruelty... would suddenly let Aketchi into his heart and trust him so fully and wholly? How many families has he left torn apart? And not all the victims were high ranking diplomats. The train conductor may have lived, but he died brain-dead.

Like- duh, right. Ren wanted to befriend Aketchi. He sees himself in him- friendless, misunderstood, and a little pathetic. Ren's scenes with Aketchi come before he finds out what he's done, and after that Aketchi changes. As romantic as those scenes might come off to some (I personally took it as pity) That Aketchi was a fake. He fucked with Ren's head and succeeded for the most part- and if Mona and Futaba didn't step in, he might have gotten away with it. Ren might not have been there to see it, the second he pulled that trigger it was over-- and he still had the mind to gloat about it.

All of the phantom thieves, after it's all said and done. Still express empathy for him. None of them will forgive him. None of them should forgive him... and the Joker I've come to know would never ever grant Aketchi any leeway without- bare minimum, Haru or Futaba's forgiveness.

All that being said, the interpretations of the story given seem highly generous. Ren shows the same affection, offer of understanding, and willingness to assist in any issues to Aketchi as he shows to any of his confidants.

Royal offered more than vanilla, sure- and Aketchi coming back in semester 3 might have been a result of Ren's desire to befriend him or save him (notice how the Aketchi in the stay ending is the softer "fake" version) but it might have also stemmed from the fact that it's in Ren's nature to save others, and the result of the shifted realities Isn't solely reflected in his desire to have Aketchi be responsible for his crimes- but in the fact that he gets to see his coffee family whole and happy- or Haru having her father back and in a good relationship, or seeing Ann or Shiho not having to live with the traumas of sexual assault or suicide attempts, and to see Ryuji and Yusuke living their dreams without pain and with family.

Yeah, they do have a "unique" relationship. They have similar circumstances, they've been pushed to play the same interdimensional game, they're the same person- same coin. But they're never ever going to see face to face. They both chose freedom, but Aketchi chose power and revenge and Ren chose kindness and friendship.

...and you know what? I appreciate that tragedy! I appreciate it a lot. I love what they did with Ren & Aketchi's dynamic and how they expanded it in Royal. It's equal parts deeply fascinating and tragic and says so much about both characters. But just like returning Aketchi to life and free would render that experience void of meaning... rendering it romantic.. seems.. diminishing. It doesn't work as well if it's romantic.

Bah, i'm getting rambly. Thanks for hearing me out.

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

Wondering if the reason people make the thieves out as uncaring after 11/20 is because the game itself moves on too quickly from it? Not saying I haven't kind of fallen into that take myself, though not like harshly, just felt they didn't act like they cared *enough* as in it should have been shown more. Because of the way the game's social sim works, you don't get the thieves checking in on/visiting Akira whilst he recovered like you might see in a fic and it can just go straight back into the confidant ranks of helping people with their problems, with no special dialogue or anything to ask how he's doing beforehand; so I feel like that contributes to the takes a lot, especially when one hasn't replayed in a while (sorry your post gave me thoughts on how people get to that take in the fandom, like I think the plan sucked for other reasons such as "Surely someone would notice the lack of a body?" but that's a bit besides the point)

Yeah I think you're absolutely right about that. The structure of the game doesn't let the Thieves care about Akira afterwards. There's also a bit of dialogue during the plan explanation when Akira says "I'm just glad I didn't die" and no one responds to it, which is...kind of baffling. But that doesn't mean the Thieves don't care about him, it means the writers at Atlus made a weird choice. And we know that because we see in that same scene that all of them were very worried for their leader's safety, and like I mentioned before, Makoto herself says she's glad he made it out safe.

The structure of the game kind of fucks over Akira and makes the Thieves look like worse friends in general, too. He helps them throughout the confidants, and then they "stop hanging out" after that, once they all say they want to start helping him out like he helped them. So we don't ever get to see their friendships become reciprocal. But like, that doesn't mean they actually stopped hanging out in-universe. It's a limitation of the play style.

That all said, I do think there is a valid interpretation you can come to which is that the Thieves don't know Akira was traumatized, or the extent of the danger, because he never talks about it. He's overly selfless and doesn't ever talk about his issues, so I could totally see that happening, and it's my personal interpretation. But that doesn't mean the Thieves are terrible friends for failing to read between the lines like that. It's on Akira for refusing to communicate.

And you can even say that they should have been more concerned for him afterwards, and that they put him on too high of a pedestal and think of him as utterly infallible, especially after he escapes with his life. They're kids, and Akira did just survive the impossible.

Or maybe they try not to bring it up on purpose because they don't want hurt him by talking about it, but letting it fester just hurts Akira more and makes him feel like they don't care.

Point is, there's lots of ways to take this strangeness in the game and make it into interesting fic content to explore. There's absolutely a discrepancy going on and exploring that is super valid and interesting. But turning it into "the Thieves are ambivalent and selfish and completely blind to their leader's suffering" takes that way too far. And like...why do people want to do that? Well, at least in the cases I've seen, the answer is twofold.

First of all, there's a section of the fan base that really hates Makoto. This is mostly common among Akechi fans from what I've seen. I think it's a combination of misogyny and the fact that Makoto can be obnoxious sometimes with her defense of the police, which is especially egregious in this situation. Like, the police beat up her best friend, and she still wants to join them. That can read as callous...if you don't understand her as a character, but I digress. (Someday I should write a Makoto defense post bc yeah. People are very stupid about her.) Point is these people like making up reasons to dislike her even more, which is where I think the whole "the plan was her idea and just an ego trip" thing comes from.

And the other reason is that there are a lot of shuake shippers who really, really want Akechi to be Akira's only "true" friend who "really" understands him. Which like...is true to a certain extent, they do have a special bond and Akechi is the only confidant that doesn't ask Akira to fix something for him, etc etc. But them having a special bond DOES NOT EQUAL all of Akira's other friends being terrible friends who suck and DON'T understand him. There's room for nuance here! You can like the toxic ship between rivals without making it less toxic because actually he's the only one who REALLY respects and loves Akira.

Like, he shot him in the head, guys. Let's not delude ourselves here.

But yeah. I'm pretty sure these two sections of the fanbase are specifically Akechi stans, and so they twist actual parts of the game to make Akechi look better and the Thieves worse. They almost like, take Akechi's perspective to a certain extent? Akechi doesn't like Makoto, and Akechi thinks the Thieves are bad friends (maybe, presumably, we don't really know, but he definitely doesn't really like them all that much and he definitely thinks they idolize Joker too much), and these Akechi stans agree with him. Which is baffling to me. Maybe he has half a point, sure, but Akechi is also REALLY stupid and frequently wrong.

And like, to be clear in case anyone who doesn't know me sees this, I say all this as an Akechi stan (look at my username) and shuake shipper.

In conclusion, I do think there is something to be said about how the confidants are written to be unequal, the Thieves don't check in on Akira enough, and the idolization they very much do have for their leader! These are real things that could make for really interesting conflict in fic. But it can happen without villainizing the Thieves or saying they just straight up don't care about their leader. Which is an obvious lie.

I think most people do agree with me nowadays, I've seen a pattern of recent fic and fandom people talking about how this villainization is stupid and going out of their way to make it clear the Thieves do care, so that's good. It was mostly a thing in early fandom that disliked how Akira was treated by canon (valid), wanted to give him conflict in fic (very valid, I love Akira angst), and wanted to make Akechi the "better friend" (???) who understands Akira better than the others (technically true, but it's complicated).

(As for the body thing, Sae said she made sure no one would check the morgue, so you're not supposed to think about it I guess. Makes me wonder about the people who would have taken his body to the morgue, though. Like, did they not report the missing body to anyone? Idk, maybe Sae paid them off too, lol.)

[arcplaysgames]

hmmm where did i leave off....

To celebrate the Madarame Job, the team comes together for hot pot. It's a nice sequence! It's cute! Ann and Yusuke continue to be my favorites. Everyone bonds over their sad backstories and Reverie re-explains how he wound up with an assault charge.

Morgana is briefly sad that he doesn't have any memories to bond with the team about. Yusuke is as comforting as I would expect him to be. He has such a dry sense of humor, it reminds me of Akihiko when he starts to open up and has these really straight-faced little jokes.

AND FOR A WHOLE TEN MINUTES THE GAME LETS ME THINK YUSUKE IS GONNA MOVE IN WITH REVERIE AND I WAS LIKE "AT LAST, EVERYONE TOLD ME THIS GAME WOULD DELIVER SOME GAY AND NOW I GET TO HANG OUT WITH EFFETE AESTHETE MATT MERCER EVERY NIGHT, YESSSS" but no he decides to go to the dorms.

my pout can be seen from fucking space

He does leaves Sayuri in the cafe, which actually made me emotional for a moment.

MEANWHILE

I don't know shit about Akechi but he sasses Makoto, so I'm a fan.

Also, Makoto, idk gurl maybe people get on your case because you fucking suck? It ain't that deep.

Okay, one: RYUJI I AM GONNA GET YOU A FUCKING BALLGAG AND IT WILL BE THE LEAST EROTIC USE OF A BALLGAG IN THE HISTORY OF GAGS. WHY CAN'T YOU SHUT THE HELL UP.

Two: I'm about to vault over this table and throw hands with Makoto. This might be a new landspeed record for a character getting so fucking deeply on my shitlist, this might actually rival Ryoji The Insta-Creep Whomst I Hated in P3P, I despise this girl.

Makoto blackmails the team into going after her target, a mafia group that is going after students.

(I wonder if they are yakuza in the original JPN? I feel like "mafia" sounds extremely weird here. If for some reason you don't wanna call 'em yakuza, even "organized crime" sounds less weird, but what do I know.)

This game is really trying to pitch me on Makoto being in a tough position, but I am a complete no sell on this. I think because I flat out do not buy the idea that she didn't know about Kamoshida when multiple students were going around the school with visible injuries and everyone was talking about Shiho and Ann. Like, if Makoto swore she didn't know, she's either a liar or she's so fucking oblivious to suffering around her, she shouldn't be in a position of authority over anyone and doesn't have a leg to stand on against the Thieves.

Glad the game lets me convey my contempt to her, tbh.

Oh then right after, she digs up Reverie's phone number to call him to thank him.

Makoto, you are a full-ass stalker and we are not friends. You lying to Sojiro to get Reverie's personal cell number to call him is like the cherry on top of your stalker sundae.

Also, through this entire sequence I have squinting at her shirt collar to figure out what that is. It's a B and a J, for Boaz and Jachin, the pillars at the entrance of the Temple of Solomon and framing the High Priestess as she sits sentinel before the veil BLAH BLAH she's the fucking Priestess. In what universe. Whatever.

The only good Priestess I have seen in Persona thus far is Fuuka. As discussed previously, Yosuke was P4's real Priestess.

If she's not the Priestess and her collar stands for, like.... Japanese Baseball, I will uninstall this game.

Anyway, I started Temperance.

Mostly because I wanna know what the fuck is going on here and is it deeper than some asshats at Atlus going "what if we combined our Maid Kink with our Hot For Teacher Kink!!!!!"

Also oh my god when the fuckign framing device thing kicked in and Sae was like "YOU MUST HAVE HAD HELP AT SCHOOL" i about fucking died.

The framing device of this game unfortunately takes Sae, who had a great introduction, and makes her seem like an idiot.

........ GOD could you IMAGINE if this game had The Fox?

SAE: "It seems like you were seen at the shrine on a regular basis. You MUST HAVE HAD CURRIED THE FAVOR OF THE GODS. Who helped you????"

LOOK AT HER FUCKING FACE I'M CRYING. I almost flung my Odin away in terror. PUT THAT AWAY!

Do you... want me to play along? How much is this a chosen job and how much is necessity?

I hate to be That Guy but if this.... is actually a line of work Kawakami enjoys, that would be very Temperance of her. Taking subconscious desire and want, and connecting it to material needs like money. Temperance would be the card of "getting paid for what you enjoy doing," honestly?

But who even fucking KNOWS. In P3P I literally Noped out of the Temperance SLink and in P4G I never got to rank 3. I figure I owe Atlus to follow ONE of the routes so why not the one that raises the most alarm bells! For fun!

Meanwhile, Mishima continues to be a crisis case waiting to pop off and I just wanna scream.

And then. Oh. He's in Kichijoji? AKA my favorite location? HM.

Am I being fucking punked? Or doxxed? What is happening here?

I mean... again, the Jake English vibes are bananas through the fucking roof, but he's also a master of billiards and a (so far subtle) flash bastard about it?

This is not helped by the fact that if I were to assign, uh, a Certain Character I Wrote In A Story a major Arcana, Justice would be one of the best options for him.

Anyway uh. Okay. I'm paying attention now.

Even if he is still Beige as all hell.

Last note for this post, I finally kicked off Yusuke's link and

damn Sae you fucking got me, we were having Yusuke make counterfeit copies of high-value TCG cards and sold them on the black market to fund our work, YOU FUCKIN CAUGHT ME

I don't even know how to deal with Yusuke being the fucking Emperor. What the fuck is his domain? The art world at large? How the fuck does he exert power over that? Also, like, if that were his domain, that's more a Hierophant thing than an Emperor thing--

MY POINT IS, I DON'T THINK IN THESE THREE GAMES YET I HAVE BEEN SO BAFFLED BY AN ARCANA CHOICE. I can see Magician, Hermit, Priestess, Strength, even the Hanged Man if you wanna be Spicy. Ooh, or the Star, he'd be a GREAT Star.

The fuckign EMPEROR?

Is the game gonna pull another rabbit out of its hat and convince me "oh yeah he the emperor" like it did with Kanji? STAY TUNED, TRUE BELIEVERS but the odds are not in their favor. oh my god, Yusuke as the Emperor, I'm fucking flabbergasted. What the hell.

[nanjokei]

I'm not even an Akechi fan but honestly yeah it's nuts how Akechi was treated in base game P5 and then people loved him and sympathized with him and you basically had to beg Atlus on your hands and knees to get them to put him in any spin-offs despite him being arguably one of the most popular characters in the game if not the most. Atlus like no you can't get Akechi in this P5 spin-off game as anything but optional minor DLC content but we CAN put a new ending in P4 Golden where you side with Adachi. Can I mention how much I hate the P4 Golden accomplice ending.

oh my god i forgot about the whole era where atlus also contributed to it by basically treating him like some kind of irredeemable but minor villain so they wouldn't put him in anything hahaha (and i forgot about the accomplice ending too....ughhhhhh)

it always goes back to hashino somehow. i think hashino really does relate to adachi on some level (versus ikutsuki and akechi who get fully condemned and treated like the scum of the earth... like i get it for ikutsuki cuz he MADE his bed but lol) and that's why adachi never got the same treatment. like sure. adachi is very popular both overseas and SUPER popular in japan. but akechi was just as popular in japan if not more.

it really screams "this guy is a villain and you're not supposed to like him he sucks and he is bad" which is pretty much what hashino wrote the story around him to be initially. wholeheartedly believe that atlus eventually realized they had to turn against hashino's vision and go "ok but the team has to put akechi content in royal. we are burning money at this point." but even then, it's non-canon to other spinoffs anyway.

it is so so so strange

i do think if he was written by someone competent and was in a better story he could have been an it girl like maki or jun but unfortunately its hashino persona we are talking about... he is only as good as the fans can expand on his story with

[sunset-bridge]

thoughts on p3 sees characters? 🤠 hope ur having a nice day!

HI SORRY i have no idea what i was doing that day but IM HERE.

UHM helloooooo helloo i love p3 i love the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad im the SEES #1 fan:

protag (im kinda talking about my guy here specifically, Reiji..): hes everything to me. angel boy. baby baby baby has done nothing wrong in his life... hes just a bit awkward and kinda pathetic but he tries so haaaard and life SUCKS so bad. fly high. i hope u have fun at the karaoke in paulownia mall. i feel compared to othe rprotags life is kinda dragging him around but he still tries his dammned hardest... hes SO AFRAID of death cuz who isnt but he WILL punch THAT GUY in the FACE !!! GRRRRAAAAAAAAAA BURN UR DREAD

yukari: GRRRRAAAAAAA i hope she gets to kill and destroy everyone that was ever mean to her. shes so. if u hate her u actually hate women i think yes. she keeps it so real and shes a cunt sometimes but so am i so likeeee. her fashion ssense is impeccable and i love how sarcastic but sweet she can be. shes having a gamer moment in her head all the time shes so strong hellooo

junpei: my friend junpei.. :3 ehehe hes soooo silly but sooo Real. like same bro i too would latch onto anything that made me feel like a hero like the protag of my own life i dont blame him at all for nothing he said or did he keeps it so real too. hes da man

akihiko: BARK BARK I LOVE AKIHIKO HES MY FAVORITE P3 CHARACTER HELLLOOOO HES SO. )(/&/(%$/#%&(/( ok hes. hes. so. so so so dedicated and strong and bold and brave but also so hard headed and can act on impulse or even be childish at times AND I AM SUCH A FAN !!!! He has to deal with so much but he keeps his chill cool senpai image up helloooo boy hellooo can i hug you. i respect him so much hes so cool. also hes so awkward and bad at talking (same boy). but i never lost the respect i had for him even after everything. i hope he wins everything forever AND I HATE THE PROTEIN THING ATLUS DID

mitsuru: EHEHEHEH MYyyyyy senpai mitsuruuuuu. GOD HELLO if aki and shinji have to deal with 5 things SHE HAS TO DEAL WITH LIKE 20 !!!! she has to keep everything in sees afloat especially after the Events and like. hello. shes literally 18 and she has to do somuch fucking serious and Very Important things and take decisions and act so mature but she Suffers too but who does the Boss go to when she feels down???!! she has to keep everyone together,,,, GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA

fuuka: AWEEE fuuka my friend. :) i love her i havent thought as mucha bout her but shes wayyy to kind and sweet for her own good and god this was way too much for her i salute her for keeping her sanity

ken: I LOVE KEN hes so baby..,,, grrrr why do people not like him as much. he has such big feelings for sucha small person,,, and theyre just as valid as everyone elses !!! but hes also soooo small and he doesnt know how to handle things but he tries so Hard to keep it together BUT HE SHOULDNT BE DOING THAT grrraaaaaaaaa. my son. also he can be so funny helloooo little sir can i help you. luv him

koro: EHEHEH ouppy... but ok hellooooo hes so real also this is gonna sound delulu but since hes kinda like. young adult if he were human. his presence actually makes me feel more at ease because he tends to keep his cool when everyone else is freaking out and he like. Acts fast. also hes clearly smarter than an average dog so i have so many thoughts... does he find hanging out with normal dogs boring... does he have many thoughts about the grief he went thru after what happened to his owner... also hes the only one whos heart is relatively at peace since his persona never evolves .

shinji: GUUUUAAAAH shinji.,,,,, grrrrrrrm i HOPE HE EXPLODES (hes everything to me...). god god he makes me sooo frustrated because. i really like him but hes so fucking emo cringe loser bottling up eveeryhting forever DO U EVER THINK ABOUT UR FRIENDS u fucking lsoer. about aki. about mitsuru. ABOUT KEN he.lllooo what is your edge gonna fix here. i knnnoooow vulnerability is hard but like. use your words man.... yeah ur cool as hell but u become WAY LESS COOL when u try to act so tough... WUEEEEE

aigis: I LOVE AIGIS. ok maybe u guys dont know this but i love androids and robots in general. so aigis. instant fave shes literally so cool looking and so badass but also i love seeing android characters learn about their own humanity... also shes always based and funny and real i also want ryoji to explode cuz he failed my vibe check as well

thamk u

[cryptofadventure]

🌻

new ask game send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want

Ok so I'm a persona fan yeah?

I got into the series when 5 came out so naturally I played that first right????

....

How come I felt so fucking cheated when I played through Persona 4?

P4 has a better story, better humor execution, better relationships, better suspense, just better everything save for aesthetics (bc the concept of mysterious thieves and the use of symbolism got me in a chokehold). Dude I'm sorry but as much as I love the Phantom thieves their friendships weren't nearly as close as the Investigation Team and there were times where they were downright malicious to each other (and by that I usually mean Atlus trying to be """funny"" and shit on Ryuji in an uncalled for manner while Morgana is allowed to be a fucking massive creep).

Morgana is fucking disgusting and completely unlikeable and you cannot change my mind, Shido was a hallow villian that pales in comparison to Adachi, they fucked up how cool Akechi's character COULD HAVE BEEN for making him snitch on himself so fucking fast, Okumura's palace was complete dog shit, and Haru was completely robbed of a character from Mona having his little piss fit that literally added nothing to the story but a headache.

Teddie was so fucking loveable and silly I literally cannot understand why people hated him. Dude his ''''weird behavior''' he learned from Yosuke and Yukiko specifically and several of the first dungeons were promiscuous and this mfer has NEVER talked to another person before you expect him NOT to pick up on what he sees his friends doing??? And he never soley went after the girls he did this to EVERYBODY no one was safe from his weird flirting and that's what made it funny vs Mona who literally sexually harrasses a sexual harassment victim at any given moment that's supposed to be his friend and acts like a incel constantly. Him being the 'being of hope' and being this fucking disgusting and selfish is fucking laughable. Fuck that cat.

But moving on since I can literally complain about Mona's character for hours; Shido is weak as fuck. Bro Adachi had LAYERS like an onion bro. He was just a everyday guy and that's what made it fucked up; ANYONE could have fallen down that road. A perfect example is Yosuke; a kid down on his luck, treated like shit no matter how hard he tries, and is consumed by boredom. Had Yosuke's parents not loved him and had ne not met his friends he could have became an Adachi himself. Adachi does a good job at making you feel bad...to a degree. Like bro it sucks your parents didn't give a shit about you, it sucks you made a tiny mistake and got shipped out to the middle of nowhere, and it sucks your love life is non-existent but you ain't had to kill anybody lmao. Also you like him once he pulls the chad move of 'oh man is THAT what i used to sound like??? You're cringe, kill yourself.' to a actual god WHILE it's beating his ass.

In addition I'm so ass mad they removed the cut scenes that gave the Will Seeds has so much more story purpose. I think it's extremely important to see how the villians get to the way they are bc no one is just born fucking evil. They were all just normal people at some point that started tumbling down the wrong road. One I can easily talk about is Kaneshiro. Where I live, gang activity is rampant; you don't just choose that lifestyle. It's a lifestyle your pressured into, or you feel you have no choice, or you are influenced by your media/friends/family. It's hardly ever something you want to do (instagram mfers with guns and drugs that say they're about that life aren't. it's a front to look cool they'd die here in seconds). He was pushed around in a low income neighborhood presumably by other gangsters and he had no choice but to fall inline and when you see YOUR opportunity to be the big dog you take it because it's a dog eat dog world..but that still don't make you a sad beanie baby. You're still a monster for ruining other people's lives by repeating history.

Showing that would have made every villain so much stronger than what they are.

Having Akechi snitch on himself so fast and even without the pancake thing it was blaringly obvious he was a antagonist. How he hated them so passionately, even for his image, didn't make much for a surprise. Also going on about characters; Makoto's hate isn't deserved full stop. 'oH BuT She WantS To Be A pOlIce OffIcer She'S meAn TO TThe GrouP SHe'S a BoOtLiCkEr' shut the fuck up Stacey you on;t hate the police bc you think it's cool but if you were robbed you'd call for 911 before anyone else. Makoto's character was so painful; imagine you lose the parent you were so close to and never met the other and on top of that you have to watch your only sibling turn into a abusive, selfish monster that treats you like shit. And it doesn't stop there, because you're pressured to be the embodiment of the nerd emoji other students hate you and adults take advantage of you. Bro the principal literally went 'I'll destroy your college future if you don't figure out a case the police can't solve'. Bro WHAT.

Also Ryuji was done dirty, Kamoshida was also his villian not just Ann's. I don't care he was still assulted too; homie teased this kid about his drunk dad beating him in front of EVERYONE and broke his leg knowing FULL WELL he's not academically capable and can't go to college any other way that sports now he has to be uncertain about his future.

eh, where was I? I forgot. In short: Persona 4 handled everything better than 5 ever could and it makes me so sad bc 5 has such a good premise and aesthetic. It honestly makes me wanna re-write a good chunk of it and apply it to my P5 blog to satisfy the dweeb in me.

Oh bonus:

If you think Maruki is morally worse than Shido soley bc you're an Akechi simp I think your brain is smoother than a jar of fucking peanut butter and that you've the intelligence of a rock.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

To be fair tho, any kind of line up woulda likely been mucked up by covid happening right in the middle of stuff, and some projects would likely be delayed farther than others; I'm still annoyed with hope atlus has been handling things, but figured to bring up the elephant in the room

Fair, but....the game came out in 2016. The muck up would've 1) not been till 2020, 2) parts of the muck up would've been overseas people rather than just JPN (aka what happened to Strikers). Regardless, it's 4 years before shit goes sideways and they didn't plan that well.

And....I ended up ranting (my frustrations with Atlus not you). Ok so like I agree with you, the C word that shall not be named did screw a lot of things up, but remember this was going on years before that. And if things got mucked up cause of C? That's fine, it's not Atlus' fault. But they failed to plan before that was a thing so I'mma say a few words about it:

We got P5 (2016), then we had to wait two whole freaking years for an anime (2018) and for....a crossover cash grab spinoff of another (2) game(s depending on if you got the triple pack or not) that current gen/new fans aren't able to play, along with the fact they forget the events by the end (ignoring the lack of any gd plot). Then it's followed by (later 2018)......ANOTHER crossover two the same two games new people probably don't know, with them forgetting the events at the end, on top of it ONLY being on a dying console. We're doing....fantastic so far, great job Altus. Was that shitty cash grab worth it? >.>

So we wasted two whole years post P5, and the first games outta the gate are........a waste. I'mma be honest, they are a waste. They're aren't unnecessary, I mean Atlus wasted them. Wasted their opportunity, their potential, timing. All wasted. It shows in the sales of these two(/three/four....depending on if you count P4D and if you group P3D with P5D) poor games.

Then 3 years after P5's release....we get a fucking remake. An....."enhanced re-release"....................are you shitting me? Three years. A rerelease. On the same....console. The SAME console. *inhales* Why? WHY???? No. Why? Why NOW Atlus? Tell me why, NOW.

"Oh Silly calm down-" No, no I'm very annoyed with Atlus I will not. Tell me Atlus, what was the point? What. Was. The. Point?

*rubs temples* No cause you see. Let's look at the P4 spinoffs. I know they aren't perfect! I'm not trying to say they are! But they have something that Post P5 releases are lacking. Spoiler: It's a brain and planning. But let's break that down! (gonna have a rough timeline, gonna try to be accurate in my short time)

P4 (July 2008) came out, Atlus wasn't in the best financial situation. P4 sold pretty well.

P1 PSP (April 2009), new port, Atlus still not in the best situation. (I think this sold decently)

P3P (Nov 2009), new port, still not in the best financial situation, P3P sold pretty well.

P2IS PSP (April 2010), still not in the best financial situation

P4 anime begins (Oct 2010), Atlus is bought by Index, anime starts it's run.

P4 Arena arcade ver (March 1, 2012), is doing well, coinciding with the anime as hype builds. It's helping to hype up the anime and P4G.

P4 anime ends (March 30, 2012), anime ends it's run, it's a big success. Between this and Index they are doing better. The anime helped hype up P4G and Arena.

P3 FES on US PSN for PS3 (April 2012)

P2 EP PSP (May 2012), new port, released only in Japan, not doing great (but we dunno how well the PS1 psn port did). Focus on new P4 remake and first sequel spinoff.

P4G (June 2012), new port, hype is building like crazy, sometime after this all Persona PSP games (plus PS1 P2 Ep for outside US) were release on vita as well.

P4 Arena console ver (July 2012), hype is building even more. New P4G girl isn't in game, fans are confused but between that and the initial Personas we kinda get what's going on (things clear up by Ultimax tho).

P stuido is formed (Oct 2012)

Ultimax arcade ver and First P3 movie air (Nov 2013): builds mystery left by Arena. Same month PQ1 and P5 (coming winter 2014! jksldfsaklaj *wheeze*) are announced. PQ1 announcement shows Marie and things start to make more sense (or less sense).

P4 PS2 ver on US PSN for PS4 (April 2014)

PQ1 and Second P3 movie air (June 2014), new game, sells really well.

P4G anime begins (July 2014), it was hyping people prior to the run. Around this time Marie has her own Ultimax commercial (so at least by this time we know she is gonna show up in Ultimax, maybe prior to this time we knew I didn't dig THAT deep, but we know the whole Arena thing she was just..."absent" and that mystery is figured out).

Ultimax console ver (Aug 2014)

P4G Anime ends (Sept 2014)

Third P3 movie air (April 2015)

P4D (June 2015)

Fourth/Final P3 movie air (Jan 2016)

P5 (Sept 2016)

Ok we got a rough timeline, these are all JPN original dates mind you (in the US Ultimax came out before PQ1 iirc but we are going off of the original releases). Obvie excluding the PSN ports, I dunno if/what dates the JPN ones for PSN were (if that was even the case). We are also ignoring the other Megaten games, I know Atlus was working on other stuff at the time, but there was a mini Persona team prior to P studio (they worked on other stuff at times but still), if anything it's more amazing hey could do a lot of stuff and better than after P studio was formed (at least.....*glares* Post P5).

So as you can see, after P4's release, Atlus focused on porting the older games. Which was a good move, P4 on PS2 did do pretty well so might as well introduce fans to the older games, no? And putting it on the PSP was a good move imo. PS1 games are backwards compatible on PS2 games, PSP was popular in Japan (so was the Vita if what I remember reading was correct, Japan....only...remember.... orz)....might as well spread to a larger audience no?

Soon after we have it’s first sequel game along with an anime. Both paired well, as they hyped each other up. With the anime having the most influence, as it caused P4MC’s name to be referred to as Yu (iirc, less so his personality in this since iirc the name they decided to go with came after writing). But it turned out that the previous port games would have an extra benefit. 1) It got fans refamiliarize with P3 chars for you know...the crossover game. 2) It reintroduced old P1/2 concepts (the one that always stands out to me are fake Shadow selves). Another great thing about the anime and Arena, is that it helped anime fans easily transition to the gaming side with Arena (so it easily served as a sequel to game only fans AND anime only fans).

Then we have the P3 movies, and now Atlus decides to take more of what they learned with Yu, and plan accordingly. They decided to try to adopt some more of the anime (well...movie) adaptation of P3 into PQ1 (specifically movie 2, esp since it was released close to PQ1). The movies made it easier for the anime only fans to get into PQ1 as well! 

So far everything is synergizing well! We have refreshers, we have anime and game fandoms crossing over and overlapping, we have games that’s easy to follow from either the games or the animes!

Oh and this isn’t even talking about how the games lead into each other and synergize!

First, P4G introduces Marie, while she is missing from Arena (development timing reasons), but hey she’s a new girl that appears in other games! For once..... *Silly said both sad and bitterly*..... *sobs* But then we get to the games. While it’s cool for DramaCD fans to notice Labby and Kikuno, what’s really cool is the continuity with the later games. Arena gives us a few mysteries. Who is the eerie voice? Who is the malevolent entity? Who is Labby’s mom? And maybe even “why do the P3/4 kids trust each other/get along so easily” (tbh I never question it but hey it makes sense to question it so 8U). These questions are answered with two later games, one of which we didn’t know was a sequel: PQ1 and Ultimax. PQ1 and Ultimax have a lot of call back/forward (depends on which order you played them in) references, and they for the most part answer everything. Who is Labby’s “mom?” It’s Rei most likely. Both died from an incurable (at the time) disease, the timing and the similarities are too hard to ignore. That, and along with “why do the P3/4 kids get along so easily” is because they already did interact before, which makes them striving so hard to save Labby make it so much more interesting. They saved the mom, and now it’s time to save the daughter...in a sense. Then we get to Ultimax, and the two new mysteries are new....original chars BUT! Narratively they are pretty interesting. 

Eerie voice, aka Sho, serves as a shadow archetype to Labby, Yu, and Adachi. Both him and Labby are mirrored color wise, and both have a similar background of rage and fighting (and issues with bonds, Sho wanting to reject while Labby.....it’s complicated). Adachi and him have a similarity of rejecting people. And with Yu it’s a reflection of what Yu could’ve been without a friend. 

Kagu takes some good notes outta Nyarly’s handbook. Yes it sucks it wasn’t Nyaly, but hey at least he’s not a freaking mess like Yaldy (who tries to copy both Nyarly and Izanami’s plans when....they contradict but now’s not the time). And hey, if you played the P2 ports (either on the PSP or Vita) you’d see the parallels! And that is really cool and it def gets people speculating! He does do a good job, I think most people are just salty on the fact it wasn’t Nyarly, which is fair, but hey he was a destructive boi.

But then these lead into P4D. Ultimax’s......foil. While Ultimax (and Arena) were all about fighting, P4D lacks fighting. Ultimax you were banned until you fought, P4D you are banned from fighting. Sho/Ultimax/Kagu is about rejecting bonds and want for solitude, P4D(/Yuko/Mikura) is craving a want for bonds even if it means forcing them. 

And....what does this all mean? It means Post P4 era releases had layers. They synergized, there was a reason to the madness. Either to get fans to crossover, to familiarize fans with the older entries because they were going to use something from it, and it utilized some spinoff/remake only characters for future spinoff releases (Labby/Theo/Marie....and later Hamu and Sho! with Motoko and her whole shtick being a reference). Nothing was wasted. Nothing felt like a waste. There was meaning.

What has P5 brought me? Nothing. 

Big mystery? The only thing is Jose and that’s just left to the way side.

Spinoff/port chars? Don’t make me laugh. Doubt we’ll see more of Hikari (I’d be happy if we did tho!). Sumi/Jose/Maruki and even Goro are nowhere to be found outside of PQ2 and P5/R. Lord help me if Ichinose and Sophia don’t return. 

Strong theme or connections? SNNNNNRRRK DLKJFSAKL;F *WHEEZE* FLKDJAFSFS AHAHAHAHAHAHA FKLDJSAL; *WHEEZE* HAHAHA HA....haha...haaaaaaaa.... Good one. Ok ok tbf, P5(/3)D, PQ2, and Royal all had one thing in common. The word “dream” came up one way or another. I don’t remember P5S saying that word tho. But each dream was different. P3/5D was a dream. PQ2 it was seen as a dream by Hamu (and Hikari?), I know Hamu was sleeping and “woke up” at the end of PQ2. Royal? uhhhh that whole “I stole their dream” blah, it was a connection I made prior to Royal coming out cause of that trailer (so my brain goes to that rather than if/where it appears elsewhere in the game). P5R and P5S (and anime?) do have the same gem things but.....whoop dee do? They don’t do anything with it. 

Structure? See above, making us wait for the first actual sequel, and has us deal with 2 crossover spinoffs that didn’t have proper ports of older games, and then we have to have an unnecessary enhanced rerelease. 

Post P5 games have nothing that made the P4 era work. And it really required a bare min of effort.

They release P5? Well guess what was around then. Devs ported their PS1/2 classics to PS4 under a digital only thing. They could’ve easily just ported P3/4 PS2 vers on there. Maybe even P1/2 PS1! Just do that and then the Dancing spinoffs (and maybe PQ2). “But what about the other consoles?” What about them? At this point P5 is only on PS3 and PS4. PS3 is easily covered, PS4 is where it needs covering. Worry about the other console/PC ports later. “Well what about remakes/remasters” Who says you can’t do both? Some fans want both, some fans will buy both even if they don’t want both (they’ll buy the old cause that’s all there is, but then will want the new one). FF7 did both, released the PS1 ver on PSN and then did a remake. That’s fine! I bought both! And I’m def not shy to rebuying Persona games multiple times! Regardless they needed to do this, not only would it cover PS4, but it also cover PS5 owners too (not that they’d know that but.... 8U)

It probs would’ve def helped P3/5D sales! ....I mean what really could’ve helped them is by being good games that deserved that price tag, but I have to work with what I got. 

I just....I dunno. The P4 era was a lot of fun, partially because we had a lot to speculate on! Not just in the game we were getting but how they could connect! And that includes the lead up to P5! It was so much fun speculating on the spinoffs and P5! 

But.......I think the only one that did that was PQ2 and Royal.....and that was mostly cause of Hamu (it’s the eye shape and eye lashes, that’s why Sumi reminds me of Hamu so much lskdjf;a). Sadly, speculation be damned, we get nothing in terms of a long and fleshy mystery like Arena gave us. We just have “who is Jose working for” and that’s it. Which is fine I like that  mystery but....WE HAVE NOTHING! They’ve given us nothing related to that. *sobs* 

My best theory atm is Labby and Sho are gonna play a role in some upcoming game. And the next game announced is grey/silver looking so it’s either P1 or P6 or a new spinoff/other game. Calling what Atlus has given me “crumbs” is far too generous of a word. ;w; 

(don’t get me wrong I do want ports, ports to all the systems! but Atlus needed to think a bit better. Port to PS4 first then worry about the other stuff later! I know I’m PS trophy biased, but I’d say the same thing about Xbox/PC/Nintendo.....tho sadly I know their hands are probs tied for PQ stuff orz)

God I tried typing this fast. I’mma head off to bed, yeah let’s just end it here. orz

[haejjoon]

Hi hi i read through all of your character analysis and i completly agree with most of the stuff. Like i really love these guys but atlus did some of them so dirty???

Like i LOVE morgana, but like everyone i really hate his whole arc during the okumura arc. And it pisses me of so so much cuz i know that that whole thing was stupid and morgana shouldve AT LEAST apologized to my guy ryuji but still i love my little furball of a friend. And then i get so sad every time i watch a playthrough and most of the players dont like morgana. Like i absolutely get where they come from but it still makes me sad. I think i just got really attached to his snarky commentary through my day to day life and him telling me to GO TO BED while other people just got really annoyed by it. But you are absolutely right that the writers shouldve just picked the story for morgana and stuck to it cuz it really is just all over the place... but still i cant keep from loving him (maybe it also got somewhat to do with de fanon version of him)

COMPLETLY different thing, but with all the characters we have been talking about that got done dirty, WHY does ann have like the most compelling arc about going against a f ing RAPIST, standing up for herself and just overall giving a big ass fuck you to everyone seeing her as only a object of sex appeal, and then the IMMEDIATE next arc goes "haha you want to unwillingly pose NUDE for some random guy? Haha nevermind you dont get a choice its either this or nothing else" like WHAT??? At least let her have her own say in this??? And then the rest of the game keeps doing this by giving her and ryuji constant scenes of him making eyes at her... I just kinda ignored all that. I think its really sad that everytime these scenes happen in japanese media i got to roll my eyes and think okay thats the required fan service out of the way lets get on with ANYTHING else. But thats the way it is i guess

Sorry to just put all of this here i was getting really passionate about how i feel about some of these characters reading all your (very based) analysis haha. I dont really got any good analysis for you but boy do i have FEELINGS

absolutely understand why you like morgana so much!! snarky characters always have a special place in my heart. for me personally morgana wasn't as snarky as he was just straight up mean sometimes, but that's just a matter of perspective. ur so valid

hard agree with ur grievances about ann. the dichotomy of "im my own person and i wont stand by when im harassed" vs "h-he wants me to pose NUDE?!?? okay... only because I Have To..." like girl no you don't have to. we can figure it out. yusuke couldnt even press charges back there anyway, what was he gna tell the police??? "i let these three teenagers in of my Own Accord, officer, and they started questioning me about my very abusive father figure and i didnt like it so i decided to call you to kick them out"??? it was such a non issue. atlus pls.

[destroy-trash-boys]

i know everyone loves angst and doesn’t care, but the way atlus won’t commit to anything with akechi makes their shuake teasing actively homophobic

the word queerbaiting gets a lot of debate but i can’t think of what else to call it. cool, they danced under a heart in a concert and hugged in a stage play. a stage play can get away with more than a major game released so while it’s nice for fans and cool of the actors, it just reinforces how cowardly atlus the company is

but it’s been six years since the game released in japan. i can’t tell you how not normal it is for any writer to write a character like this. i hated how much akechi felt like bait for a new installment in vanilla, and then people act like royal was much better even though it left him in the same place. you can’t ignore him in royal since he’s so hyped up and so part of joker’s character, but it’s done in a way that becomes actively homophobic when it comes with baiting a ship like this.

nobody baits a character’s status like this. either kill them or don’t. even p3p was clear about shinji only living in the femc route. nobody baits a character unless they want the fans to spend money. the real people winning are the people who hate a character. the people who don’t want to see any homosexuality in their games. that’s why the beauty of interpretation is a coward’s answer. you cannot do “interpretation” when we still live in a homophobic society where straight is the default. letting people ignore any gayness, when we don’t have the option to ignore straightness, is just homophobia. how come literally every fandom calls out homophobia except this one??? it’s insane!!

the irony is people wouldn’t have hated akechi in vanilla if atlus committed to something with him in the first place. now his fans just accept this because of angst and because fandoms think mlm ships without death and abuse are boring, even though wlw shippers don’t act like this is a requirement. tying the gay subtext to a character who can’t be confirmed alive or dead is homophobic. teasing it in a canon that’s going to be ignored is homophobic. all the leering at ann and all the sexist remarks from the boys are kept in, but gay relationships still need to be hidden, ~up to interpretation~, and easy to dismiss because the character is safely dead and won’t be ruining the good heterosexuality of everyone else

other companies have done better with lgbt characters. even other shipbaiting has done more than atlus. instead people get yelled at if they don’t appreciate what atlus did, so maybe it’s because i’m not into the ship and because i don’t think potential for fanfics outweighs bad canon writing. the writing being so bad is why the ship has so much fanfic, but it’s only because they’re easy to write in the same mlm tropes and i hate the fanfic, so that doesn’t mean much to me. what i hate is homophobia, baiting, and fandoms that eat it up. cishet men will protest if they can’t date every female character in the game but nobody can even ask for better. atlus cut a gay romance route in persona 4 over a decade ago, and still we can’t get anything. stop praising this and making people think its good! it’s just homophobic!

there’s something about male writers who see they have female fans, and who want to punish those fans, and its at play here too. not just the way female characters are written in p5. most people who like akechi seem to be women. if you’re a woman, or an lgbt person, atlus hates you. they are making that obvious. they hate you, they will take your money, but they won’t reward the way they reward cishet men. if you personally loving akechi or see something romantic in shuake, atlus has contempt for you. they’ll bait you with a heart over some them dancing at a concert, but they won’t do anything to upset homophobes. it is not normal for good writers to bait a character like akechi over fans for years. i’ve seen fans back during vanilla days spending money on merch for more akechi. and then years later, you get more bait for atlus can get more money because what if this time, guys!! don’t fall for it. 

personally no amount of headcanon angst would get me to be okay with this treatment. even though i’ve said a lot of mean shit about this ship and the fanon and akechi’s character, i can still see homophobia when it’s happening. at the very least don’t praise a company or a story that actively hates your guts.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Updated thoughts on where I’m at with “Persona 5″ (palace 3, I just need to send the calling card out):

1) My party rankings: Morgana > Makoto > Ryuji > Ann > Yusuke

Morgana is my prime healer, so he’s at the top of my list. Makoto is a great all-around character (her “nuke everybody” skill really comes in clutch). Ryuji is great at offense.

Ann...she’s fine but I feel like I’d rather have Ryuji or Makoto on my team. She’s great as a backup.

Yusuke, I hate to say this, is my least favorite mainly because he tends to die/get critically injured. I don’t know why this keeps happening since no matter how much I upgrade Yusuke, he gets his ass beat. 

/

2) Not the biggest fan of how the game approaches the female characters. There’s this uncomfortable feeling of oversexualization, which stands out since the same can’t be said about the male characters. 

Ann’s whole character is that she’s seen only as as a sex object by Kamoshida and the student body. The story is technically fine since it’s about her standing up for herself and taking down her abuser...but the game undermines her story by having the heroes also objectify her (ex.: Yusuke forcing Ann to do nude modeling for him, Ryuji and Morgana trying to look up Ann’s skirt when she was sleeping). So, when the villains do it, it’s bad, but when the heroes do it, it’s good? 

Makoto’s character arc is a bit better, but still has some uncomfortable, skeevy undertones. If you fail palace 3, apparently Makoto will be forced to work as a prostitute or something. And then there’s the fact that the villain wants to keep Makoto’s sister as a slave (they don’t say “sex slave”, but the implication is there).

You know...I would’ve loved the option to customize Joker/Ren/Akira, especially being able to play as a female Joker. But now I’m wondering if that’d be a good idea considering this is how Atlus is treating their female characters.

/

3) I’m not 100% sold on the storyline just yet. Now that I have a better grasp of what’s going on, I’m not really feeling what the story is trying to do. I mean, yes, we are the Phantom Thieves. We’re a vigilante group that goes around “stealing” people’s hearts and making them change their ways. What I’m not convinced about is that we’re being treated like actual criminals.

Like...if we get caught, what the fuck are we gonna get charged with? “Joker, you’re under arrest for stealing the physical embodiment of the person’s desires. Also, apparently for trespassing as well since you entered the Upside Down through your iPhone without permission”. And the fact that everyone is going along with the “Phantom Thieves are actual criminals” perspective without questioning things is just baffling to me. 

This is lowkey reminding me of “Trauma Center”, another Atlus game. The story in that game was also pretty far-fetched and unbelievable, so that just might be Atlus’ way of writing stories. 

Also, maybe the story irks me in particular since I’m a lawyer-in-training. I’m just imagining myself in court defending the Phantom Thieves, yelling at the prosecution, “WHAT ARE THEY BEING CHARGED WITH?! THEY DIDN’T BREAK AN ACTUAL LAW!”

/

4) Palace 2 is definitely my favorite setting so far. Palace 1 began to annoy the shit out of me, especially with the music, while Palace 3 is just...okay. Palace 2 was very creative and I liked how the artist storyline meshed into the game

/

Okay, that’s it so far. Will update again once I finish palace 3. 

[p5confessions]

I hate that in rank 5 of Futaba's confidant the only thing you can say about Mishima is either "he's not my friend" or "he is my classmate" (again, denying that you aren't friends with him). Like, why? Why we have 10+ romance options in game to choose from but we can't choose if we can be friends with Mishima or not? Some fans like him very much and it sucks your protag wouldn't like him no matter what you do, especially when he was one of the few people that cheered on and believed in the Phantom Thieves from the very start of the game... And Joker would continue to dislike him even after rank 10 of his confidant and having a "blood oath" and "deep trust and bond of friendship" with the guy, like...why?

I know he is a comic relief character but being that type of character doesn't discredit him from being able to have friends or just be likeable in general. Other comic reliefs characters from previous games like Yosuke or Junpei or Eikichi could be funny and comic relief while being respected and liked by their friends and the protags...

Atlus did Mishima so dirty and I hate that, Mishima deserve better!

[tricksheart]

What would you say is your favorite thing about writing your character? Is it their characterization, their development so far, or would it be something else entirely? Are you proud of how far they've come since you started your blog? Is there anything you'd do differently if given the chance?

Sorry if this seems short compared to the dash that also got this question for some odd reason. But I think it's a combination of all things for writing this character in the long run. I do have some regrets, namely having Akira for so long that I don't like the idea that his 'canon' name is Ren Amamiya but it's not the fault of the fans who liked his name as 'Akira Kurusu', as the official ( some like to claim Atlus didn't have too much input in the original manga but still hasn't come out publicly stating that the manga is not canon since it's even following some elements of Royal now ) manga has his name as Akira and not Ren as in Mementos Mission which IS a non canon manga. I guess having my muse so long, I just like the name they gave him previously. That and the 'fans' putting me and my feelings down just because I like Akira over Ren in naming terms. Hence why I don't like the name wars in the Persona fandom as a whole. It's exhausting and draining to say the least. I think that is one reason why some fans left the franchise. Also, I hate to say it but this fandom has really went downhill in the past 6 to 7 years and it's sad. Although, there are still some good people here and I commend them for sticking with me and others who still are decent when it comes to the fandom. I am grateful for all of my Persona muse mutuals and also those who write with me outside of that too. That with all of my world building, verses, crossovers, silly things, and everything between, I am still glad everyone I met has given me a chance to write the protagonist and my own spin on his character. I really am thankful to all that interact with me or my muse.

[1eos]

Hii Princess Kendra! So I’m playing P5 and (this is a mini rant abt Ak*chi’s character so please ignore this if this is a bother) but I genuinely wish hardcore Ak*chi fans could just realize that they’re obsessed with the Potential that this character had instead of the character itself… because even with Atlus tweaking parts of his Link and expression of his personality in Royal, they really just gave us all fucking nothing in the end (which is a shame because I feel like his character could’ve been a genuine exploration into how childhood trauma can differently affect a person’s psyche and self worth & unfortunately increase the likelihood of getting them gr00med etc etc). It’s so sad honestly… anyways Ryuji & Yusuke >>>>>. Sorry for this and hope u have an amazing day!

dont ever apologize for being right!!!!!! cuz you’re spitting nothing but facts! i totally agree nd i say it all the time but the two narrative shortcomings of persona 5 is that it doesn’t explore the trauma of the characters enough nd that it’s relying too hard on persona 4. like p4 balanced that exploration of trauma w light comedy hijicks better bc the narrative structure nd core gameplay mechanic was overcoming your shadow which is the physical embodiment of your trauma almost. you spend hours with each character exploring their deepest issues at the time! even persona 1-3 make addressing trauma a fundamental part of the narrative (in persona 3 the characters don’t get their evolved personas until they begin to heal from a traumatic event in game) wheras in persona 5 they give u a taste of that trauma nd then move on. nd its up to the social links to do the bulk of the fleshing out so if the s-link is underwhelming (and akechi’s fucking was) you don’t really get much more? but persona fans still love akechi bc atlus borrowed facets from p4 characters notably naoto nd adachi but we don’t love naoto just bc she was a fucking detective. just like ppl aren’t obsessed w adachi JUST bc he was fake. but bc ppl know of the kid detective archetype or the backstabber archetype they can fill in the blanks when in reality the akechi we got was v v v v empty. like now that im on my 3rd or 4th playthrough ive noticed that this rivalry akechi has for u comes out of fucking nowhere. and AGAIN its something done well in p4 nd stuck in here. he just tries to talk to you nd vaguely trauma dumps while ure like ??????? in the coffee shop so his betrayal isnt shocking kgakgkag when ure betrayed in p3 nd p4 its genuinely a shock bc 1. u spent a LOT of time w those characters, naturally, nd they purposefully were made to be a comfort to you of sorts which is exactly why the back stabbing hurts! whereas akechi is suspicious the whole time. which could be fine if they actually gave u hints that he had a hate boner for the protag. like it wouldve been so easy to have akechi be soooo nasty to akira in small doses mean girl style when they were alone in a way that directly contrasts how nice he was in public bc he had an image. like there was so much to be done w someone who craves attention nd success bc of their abandoment issues nd how even with power he still was subject to being used nd manipulated bc he had no one around him that truly gave a fuck about his well-being but in the end we got a really one note character with this great mask off moment at the end nd that was it. literally i need a podcast bc there’s so much to talk abt how persona 4’s mega success affected persona 5

[notcorrect-persona5]

@ultragiverofstudents​ Aw, of course. I love doing these, and I haven’t gotten a lot of them lately, so thank you for sending me some!

Favorite Thing About Them

No matter how intelligent or mature she is, Makoto’s still a kid. She has childish fears, and she enjoys childish things. If you romance her, she’s nervous to even hold Ren’s hand. She’s reckless, and she makes mistakes. Makoto is still a kid, and ATLUS doesn’t treat her as if she’s an adult. I really appreciate that because I think a lot of fiction treats those smart, mature characters as if they weren’t still children.

Least Favorite Thing About Them

She calls Sae “Sis.” I don’t think the person who wrote this has siblings because I have never heard anyone call their sister “sis.”

Favorite Line

This is one of Makoto’s dancing lines when Akechi dances: “Yeah, you kill ‘em! I mean, do your best out there!”

brOTP

Eiko and Makoto! Eiko didn’t seem to believe the rumors about Makoto, at least she had her doubts. When she met Makoto, she didn’t hold on to anything she previously thought. Instead, she saw Makoto for who she is. Eiko didn’t even care when she thought the student council president was dating the delinquent transfer student. She could have spread that around the school, but instead she promised not to tell anyone and befriended Makoto. They both taught each other important life lessons, and even though they couldn’t be more different, they always have fun together.

Eiko deserves a portrait 2021.

OTP

Ren and Makoto! This is actually one of my favorite ships. It’s the first ship I had for the Persona series (okay, that’s not entirely true. I shipped Ann and Yusuke for .2 seconds, but that doesn’t count). I think Ren and Makoto’s relationship is very realistic. Like they’re similar enough to have common interests, but different enough not to get annoyed with each other. They’re also just really sweet together. I also appreciate that a lot of their fan fictions write Ren the way I see him.

nOTP

None :)

Random Headcanon

When she’s in college, she asks Ryuji to give her purple highlights. She doesn’t keep them for very long, but she loves them. In Strikers her fashion sense is much more like her phantom thief outfit which makes me think she’s starting to embrace that side of her. I think purple highlights would not only look adorable on her, but it also contributes to that character growth. Plus it goes along with my “Ryuji can dye hair” headcanon.

Unpopular Opinion

I see so many posts about how Makoto has it easy compared to other characters. First of all, why are we comparing the situations these characters are in? They’re all bad situations. Secondly, just because she didn’t go through the things the others did, doesn’t mean her situation doesn’t suck. Both of her parents are dead, her sister treats her horribly, everyone at school hates her, there’s rumors about her supporting an abuser, and she knew she was being used and manipulated by Principle Kobyakawa while it was happening. She wasn’t happy with herself or her life. She was a victim of adults treating her terribly as well.

Song I Associate With Them

Tolerate It by Taylor Swift reminds me of Makoto and Sae. 

Good Girls by 5 Seconds of Summer

Favorite Picture of Them

Why does nobody talk about how beautiful she is?

[kareofbears]

persona 5 strikers thoughts and feelings

This is going to be a long post. Like, the type of post you’d only really have time to read when you’re trying to sleep but you’re not ready to be unconscious yet so you’re just looking for something to do to spend your time with minimal effort. 

So in 2018, a masterpiece was born into the world: Into the Spider-verse was released and it was amazing—it’s honestly the best spiderman movie we have without a doubt, and it’ll be very far into the future before Spider-verse is beaten as the best spiderman movie. Them’s the facts. Then in 2019, Spider-man: Far From Home was dropped. It’s a great movie! Great characters, great continuation of who these characters are and works fantastic as a continuation of a story. It’s really hard trying to take the torch of a previous movie (or in Marvel’s case, juggling twenty something movies) and come up with a new movie that both works on its own, as well as being the next step in this series of films. Thus, with that idea in mind, I think it’s kind of unfair to judge into the spiderverse and far from home, because these are two movies with two completely different objectives in mind. 

Okay, so this is still a persona 5 strikers post, I promise, but the idea is the same: Persona 5 could basically do whatever it wanted—new story, new characters, new everything, and it’s just plain old awesome. However, Persona 5 strikers did not have that sort of freedom. It was bound to the original game, and it had its own rules and stuff it had to keep intact, characters they had to work with, and on top of that, it had to justify its existence as a sequel (lets pretend money doesnt exist lmfao). 

SO, the big question is: did it do that? Did it justify its existence? 

And my answer: holy fuck did it ever do that

I came into this game knowing the extreme bare minimum. I knew there was someone named Sophia, and i knew there was roadtrip, and i knew there were Personas. That’s my knowledge of it before i played it on the Switch.  I should also clarify like, early on, that i was not expecting anything from this game. At all. I was the world’s biggest cynic of this game—if you scroll down my p5s tag far enough, youll just see me complaining about a game that hasn’t even come out yet. I was fully expecting to have this be a Waifu show, and any male character that isn’t Akira to just be shoved aside like some kind of nerd in a high school hallway, and i have never been more pleased to be wrong. In fact, i actually owe it an apology, because of how fucking rude i was for no reason!!! Because this game deserves everything to be honest. 

Persona 5 strikers is, frankly, insane. Insane in the sense that it got to pull shit off that just would never have existed in the original game, because the original game is scared. It had to be as impressive as possible and garner as much attention as possible. Strikers does not have that problem—every single person who bought that game does not need to be convinced that persona 5 is a good game. They already played it. That means Atlus can just fuck around and have a good time, and man did they have a good time. There’s still scenes that still shock me if i think about it too hard, because i’m used to atlus having to follow this sort of rule set when it comes to persona 5 (or any of the main games im assuming, but i havent played them.) And on top of that, there’s still shit that’s Atlus Trademarked Branded in a good way. The style of story of story telling, and revealing the mystery that is so integral to what p5 is, is still there. 

So, to make this even a little bit comprehensible, i will make a list! 

First of all, What is this game?

In short, this game is an OVA of an anime. It’s bonus side content that has one thing in mind: to showcase these lovable characters more by putting them in fun situations. That’s it, and it is just phenomenal. That was the main point of, i’d say, like forty hours of the game. It’s just fun times with fun characters. 

But to get deeper of what i think is happening, or what they were thinking during the development, is that this is a second opportunity. Persona 5 (as we all know) had a lot of problems, and we were not quiet about those problems. We yelled it all out, made posts, made complaints on every social media platform ever. And Atlus heard all of them, and Strikers is a way to mitigate those mistakes. Aside from being a fun OVA, Strikers also works to be a deeper exploration of these characters—more specifically, the characters that did not receive much in the original game. Creating this sequel is having the ability to redo what they felt (or to be more specific, we felt) in the original game while adding new ones. I will get to that in a second.  

The format of the game 

Absolutely brilliant to throw them on a road trip. P5V already forced us to experience Shibuya for 200+ hours, and im so glad that they didn’t do that again. Going from town to town, making us experience these new places alongside our favorite characters is so good, and it just makes sense. It’s fun, it’s lighthearted, and it’s actually shockingly good. But one thing i do want to talk about early on is the way the story unfolds and the villains that they use, and what they do with it because it’s very interesting. 

So as we explore japan and stuff, we encounter jails, and with those jails comes an antagonist. This antagonist works to be a parallel to one of our characters. That character will find it in their hearts to feel bad for the antagonist, because the antagonist could have been them had the original game not happen. At first I thought all of the thieves were gonna get an antagonist, and i was really hyped for the ryuji one. And then came to hour forty of the game where i realized “yeah that’s not gonna happen. There’s just not enough time.” And i was right, and the game ended. But i am not salty at all, honestly, because the people who got a direct antagonist were: Ann, Yusuke, and Haru. (we wont count zen and sophie). 

Is there a trend??? Yes. these are all characters in the original game that have received the worst treatment by atlus. The three of them are basically cast aside the minute they finished their original arc, and its horrible! BUT that’s why this is the path that atlus chose for them—to give them more depth, and screentime, and a way to show their inner self. That isn’t to say that the ones who aren’t those three (makoto, futaba, mona, akira, ryuji) didn’t get anything. Futaba still has her thing at the end with ichinose, and she was very prevalent and animated during the rest of the game. Mona and Akira have to be a focal points, that’s just the nature of the game. The other two though, I will talk about in depth in a second.  

Makoto

Y’all i poke fun at shumako fans sometimes cause its kind of easy and fun, but i honestly love makoto. In my very first playthrough of p5 (my first ever jrpg game, first persona game, i had no idea what i was doing), i had only maxed out two characters: ryuji and makoto. And i know she had a lot of screentime and love in the original game which is great, but i truly felt like she was dissed in this game. Her only roles were

A driver

Someone to tell them “we don’t have a choice. Let’s keep going and see where this takes us.” (seriously, if you replay this game, you will see how much she does this)

Idk, i just wish she had more to do, especially compared to how much love they gave the other characters. 

But let’s talk about some of the new characters! 

Zenkichi

Damn you atlus. Damn you and your insistence at bringing in cop characters. I was fully on board with hating zenkichi, i was fucking ready for it. I was convinced that there was nothing they could do convince to like zenkichi. I was immune to their copaganda. 

And then i ended up loving him, which makes me sad a little bit. I didn’t realize how desperate i was to have an adult who has a persona. Someone who wants the world to change just as much as they do, while still having that aspect of them that makes them adult. Like??? As someone who is technically an adult, its a breath of fresh air. An adult. Who fights. For justice. Using a persona. And god i love akane so much, and her obsession with the thieves (that scene is probably in my top ten fave scenes of the game). Also what i loved about zenkichi is that he fucking hates the cops!! He hates the system of the cops!! And thats why i actually really started to love him!! Because i thought it was atlus saying that the systematic problem of the police cannot be solved by one person, and zenkichi threw away his badge. I actually cried at that part!! 

But then he became a cop again, and i was just :/ but as a character, i really love him to bits and would love to do a study on him, or at least use him as an outside pov. But! i absolutely love his persona, since im a les miserables fan hehe

Sophia 

she’s probably my favorite new aspect of the game. I was ready to not like her—again, i just suck like that, lmfao—and when i saw her, i was scared that she was just another waifu. I mean, she was very cute after all. But then as the game went on, i thought she was a little too cute. And even further into the game, i finally slapped myself in the face and realized oh my god shes not a waifu. Shes a sister. 

That blew my mind, im ngl to you. A female character that isn’t supposed to be romanced? By jove, what a miracle! 

And she…is an amazing character. Im sorry, i just love her so much. I love her so much that she  probably ranks as my fifth or sixth favorite character which is surprising even to me. Everything about her is delightful and invigorating. She’s funny??? Her comedic timing is amazing, and she has such chemistry with the rest of the team. She’s actually useful to the plot, and while her character design is a little too on the nose for me in terms of cuteness (i mean, good god she’s wearing oversized sweater to show how cute and tiny she is, and her hair has literal hearts in it), she is absolutely lovable. 

But what i actually really wanna gush about for a second is sophia at the last stage of the game. You get the idea, i dont really like to get excited over things, so at this point i figured that there was nothing this game could do to shock me. 

And then sophia had a persona awakening. 

Like. holy fuck did i yell. I didnt realize what was happening until the music had already kicked in. and its just so fucking smart!!! Sophia??? The ai?? With no heart?? gOT A PERSONA???? AWAKENING??? BECAUSE SHE LEARNED WHAT THE HEART IS AND THE PASSION THAT YOU NEED IN ORDER TO GET A PERSONA??? I started crying honestly, because it was just so smart. And looking back on it now, its obvious!! Of course it would lead to this, it only made sense that the culmination of her character arc leads to her getting a persona, nothing else would have been as good. Also, her voice actor is just amazing?? When she was talking to ichinose at the end, i actually got incredibly emotional because of the line reads. Its just so spot on and it really captures the essence of sophia.

Muah. five stars Atlus. You got me. 

Ryuji <3!!!!

Oh man. Oh boy. Okay. so where do i start. 

Yall know i love him. Hes probably my favorite fictional male character of all time, and he is the one i was the absolute most cynical about in this game. I was expecting literally nothing. Nothing. Like. nothing. I thought he was just gonna keep being used as a joke, or a gag, and he’s gonna be super horny all the time for the other girls and it was gonna make me mad and there was gonna be some insane homophobic/queerphobic jokes in every other scene and i know i was being unfair, but i cant help it. 

And then i played the first two hours of the game, and i cried the entire time. Because ryuji has never been better than he is in this game. Its crazy. 

The ryuji in persona 5 strikers is who ryuji should have been/how he should have been treated this entire time. From the actual funny jokes (for example, the gold bar joke + his reaction to it in the beginning of the game), defending his female friends instead of being the one people need to defend from (natsume arc), and the fact that he was the one to be there with morgana and akira in the very beginning of the game. Its such a small thing that they didnt even need to do, but it was such an integral part of the original game for me, that i just was convinced that nothing like this was going to happen. But then it happened. Its just small stuff like that that could have been overlooked but it wasn’t because this game? Persona 5 strikers? Fucking loves ryuji. 

The actual respect they gave this boy is insane and i wasn't ready for it. Like, they gave the shujin trio lunch, they gave the little charm of the katana when they were in natsume’s jail, and, in my opinion this is the second-best thing that they could have given ryuji is sophia. Ryuji and sophia are the pinnacle of a brother & sister bonding relationship in the game that isn’t akira & futaba. And its really prevalent too?? Small stuff from the beginning of the game (pulling her out of a jail, calling her shorty), but then you have the iconic “shut the fuck up” scene, and that scene was so well characterized and written and voice acted, that somehow him saying “fuck” was the least exciting part of that scene to me. Ryuji is an older brother to her, like its undoubtable, and its only further cemented at the end of the game where Ryuji helps out ichinose because he knows how much sophia cares about her. This game. Love ryuji. And i love. This game. 

You know what else i love? Akiryu. 

Guys. i was fully prepared to starve in terms of akiryu. But theres just. So much of it. I wont get too deep into it, because i think this aspect of the game for me still needs marinate a little bit. Like, what was that last shot when EMMA died and Ryuji walked to approach Akira so they could relish in their victory together?? And the smile from both of them??? What the fuck. That was amazing. Also Joker being saved by Ryuji when he was about to fall from the cliff to save sophia??? WHAT. The LEADER AND HIS RIGHT HAND MAN? WHAT. anyway. If theres anything i want to keep for myself in my own brain, its the akiryu aspect of this game, so i wont talk too much about that part of things (instead, itll probably manifest in fic lmfaooo). 

Sure, there’s tidbits of stuff i dont like that they gave ryuji: sexualizing ann in that one cut scene and making him touch the jails even though it hurts, and i recognize those and frown at them, but for the most part, i am blown away with how they treated him.

Basically, Ryuji has never been better. From the opening of the game with him being the first text message and the one to sling his arm around akira, to the very last cut scene where it was ryuji wordlessly leaving because he’s so confident that they would never be separated for long, this game adores Ryuji and i am so so happy to say that.

The Royal aspect of things

Yeah, i had to talk about this, but itll be a short thing i just wanted to point out. Because the last part of this game...is persona 5 royal. Which is curious. Like taking reality and giving that power to someone else so you dont have to experience suffering anymore? And even like, the final section just looked a lot like the top half of maruki’s palace?? And whats even crazier is that we had a boss fight with sophia, just like how we had a boss fight with sumire? Royal and Strikers have like, the same thesis statement. It’s kind of uncanny.It’s interesting, it’s like atlus came up with these two ideas, and then just decided they liked both of them so much that they just did it twice. I don’t mind though—actually, in terms of how the last Palace/Jails go, i probably like them both about equally. 

Though i did love the final battle in this one more than i did in royal. Splitting into teams?? Thats cool as fuck, and really innovative and i didnt see it coming. It also kicked my ass. A lot. 

Now for the last stretch: the small stuff!

The music — bomb as fuck. In my heart, Daredevil is ranked the same as Rivers. Axe to grind is also amazing, but Daredevil owns me

Akechi — i really debated whether or not to talk about him, but i figured a bullet point should be enough. Im really shocked that he wasnt in this at all. Like not even a name drop. If this is an OVA, and the point of the game is to please the fans, and akechi is arguably the fan favorite character, i was really ready for something. But there was nothing, except for the pancake hallway if that even counts as a reference. Thats it. Thats all i wanted to say about him.

The humour — FUCKING HILARIOUS im convinced that in my fifty hour playtime, five of that is dedicated to me laughing and unable to continue the game 

Akira — so much personality! His lines of dialogue are crazy sometimes (like. Whats up with him saying Ryuji has ‘nice abs’ when they were in bath? Im crazy and even i dont know what the fuck that could mean) 

Battle system — oh my god i almost forgot to talk about this. I love it! I kind of miss the turn based aspect just because i found it very comforting for some reason, but this hack and slash style of gameplay is so invigorating because i do feel like it justifies shit like the baton pass and huge attacks.  This battle system fully encompases how the Phantom Thieves are supposed to fight, you know what i mean?

Anyway, thats my thoughts on strikers. Loved it. Amazing. 9.3/10, wouldve been higher but Konoe’s Jail almost bored me to death. Also im a monster and i didnt do any requests that isn’t a fun one, teehee. As if i play persona 5 for the persona aspect of things.

[patchesthegothictramp]

Part 3 of P5R review: Akechi

Next up, my favourite part: Akechi! Also mostly likely the last part since I don’t think I missed anything else. Feel free to hit me up though if you’re wondering about anything I haven’t mentioned

Akechi was undoubtedly, and still is, persona 5’s most hotly debated character. From what I’ve been seeing people who even loathed Akechi are starting to become fans of him, or at least don’t hate him anymore. Royal expands on his character in a way that fans of his love because it confirmed so many of their suspicions of what he’s really like but also just adds more depth to him. I could even understand why people who played vanilla only saw him as ‘boy takes things too far cos daddy issues’ cos, well, without deeper analysis that is what atlus was presenting. There was a lot more to his character in vanilla but I don’t blame people not looking into him because what they saw on the surface didn’t interest them enough... though that being said the abuse and torment given to his fans was super uncalled for.

Let’s start with his confidant and take it from there- it’s special, it’s fun, it’s emotional and it’s so layered I could watch it a million times and I’d probably still miss something from it. It’s special because it’s the only confidant where Ren just gets to hang out with someone, with nothing expected in return. All Akechi wants is a conversation and to play billiards with him. All of the other confidants want your help in something, want you to solve their issues without any regard for what they could do for you in return. Of course when Ren’s in jail they help him out then but it’s only when he’s facing the worst-case scenario. Interestingly enough, Akechi goes to jail for Ren at the first opportunity he gets and in that world none of your confidants ever return the favour of Ren changing their lives. To nail this point further, his confidant does have some requirements for social stats, but it’s the only instance where it’s made clear that it’s for Ren’s own comfort, not for someone else’s. Akechi says he needs someone charming and knowledgeable because he’s genuinely concerned for the abuse Ren might get if his fans didn’t consider him worthy of their idol’s presence.

It’s unexpectedly fun too, you’d think that an Akechi confidant would be just about rivalry or him talking to you about his Tragic Backstory but you get quite a few moments which are just… fun. The first one has them playing billiards and uncovering that he’s ambidextrous, and while it is a set up for their rivalry it’s still just them playing billiards like regular teenagers would. There’s the café date where silliness ensues and funnily enough you end up finding out more about Ren in that interaction than you do Akechi; about how Ren too hides from the public and has his own mask (glasses) that help him cover up who he really is.

But of course, it’s also emotional, like the bathhouse scene where you finally get to know more about Akechi’s past that’s not just a random info dump, there’s him clearly crying for help in the final billiards rank where he talks about the game as if it were his own life and even asks you if you’d help him (even though he doesn’t let you help regardless of what you say).

Term 3 Akechi… well he’s everything I hoped he would be. Sarcastic, sardonic and all around Done With This Shit. He never holds back anymore, both on the battlefield and real life and he doesn’t care what the Thieves or anyone else thinks of him anymore. He’s done with the detective mask and the charade and can finally be himself for once, and I absolutely love it. He’s gone from a character I can only theorise about being rude in my writing to one who’s everything I hoped for and so much more.

Now to the shuake stuff: Oh my god its so gay. 

Yes a lot of it is regular friendship stuff but also if you can’t be friends with your boyfriend then that’s just casual sex, not a relationship. And I’m not talking about the bathhouse scene. Actually, what’s interesting is what happens after which is when Akechi specifically says that no ones ever seen that part of him, Ren’s the only person who he’s been able to open up to like that. There’s the jazz club, which you find out later is a special place for Akechi to the point that the owner says he’s never brought anyone else there. Ren is clearly special in Akechi’s eyes, he’s the one person he can be around and be his true self.

You even see it in term 3 when he’s sarcastic and sardonic around Ren but still continues to put up a façade around human Morgana, Futaba, Sojiro Wakaba and later Kasumi, at least until they see him for who he really is inside the palace and he’s forced to show his true self. The writers make that so obvious that Akechi’s face visibly changes when he’s talking to Ren and when he’s talking to everyone else.

And Akechi is equally special to Ren. Ren doesn’t wish for his criminal record to disappear or to be a Phantom Thief again, he wishes to keep the promise he made to Akechi even with the knowledge that the other was going to kill him. We’ve seen him mourn Akechi’s death in p5a proof of justice- the OVA that was so clearly meant to set up royal considering how many similarities it had with that more so than the original game. For a silent protagonist and a self-insert Ren shows more feelings towards Akechi than he does any other character. 

Even down to their showtime, everyone else has these elaborate plans that they have to explain to each other then to Ren and hope that the wishing star will make their wish come true and yet Akechi and Ren are just able to improvise it completely on the spot, staying completely in sync. Interestingly enough if you compare it to Joker’s only other one- Sumire’s, she’s leading him into the showtime, she’s the one who has to have him follow her, but with Akechi, he’s equal, they’re in sync, all it takes is Ren shouting ‘Crow!’ for him to jump at the enemy without further instruction. Just as their showtime says, they’re two sides of the same coin.

There’s a reason that somehow, despite never having spoken about Akechi to him, Maruki knows that’s what Ren’s biggest wish would be, he knows that it’s the only way he might be able to stop Ren and the Thieves from infiltrating the palace, and in one alternative, the dream ending, it is enough for him to dangle Akechi’s life in front of him for Ren to fold. He insists Akechi’s life isn’t just something small that he can sacrifice once again.

Our Light is even further proof of it, it’s a love song, not to Kasumi, or not from her, it could clearly not be more obvious that’s it’s from Ren to Akechi. The song describes missing someone who’s gone in such a romantic way that seeing it as Sumire to Kasumi is borderline incestuous, and seeing it as Ren to Sumire or vice versa makes no sense either since they’re just a train ride away and even speak about seeing each other soon. It’s unlikely to be about anyone else either since yeah, Ren can just go and visit them any time and for that to be the ending song of a remake where the only character who’s made more important than he was previously is Akechi. It wouldn’t make sense for the song to be about that one girl out of 10 that you can romance but doesn’t really change the plot as significantly as he does.

In this way, P5R does a great job of showing, not telling. There are frequent comparisons of Maruki and Rumi’s situation to Ren’s and Akechi’s (not direct ones but it’s obvious the two are similar) and if they were a het couple that romance would be unquestionable. At the end of the day, persona is and always will be a game about choice where the protagonist is mostly a self-insert which is why they’ve never been able to outright say ‘this is the canon romance route’ but honestly, if it were to be anyone, it’s so painfully clear it’s Akechi.

Especially when you remember the director’s words of this being a love triangle. We know Sumire has a crush on Ren but doesn’t seem to have an interest in Akechi and outside of being a possible conversation partner, Akechi clearly isn’t interested in Sumire. So then if they’re a love triangle the only logical conclusion is that they’re both vying for Ren’s affection. From Ren’s perspective, the player can choose if he will romance Sumire but regardless of what Ren says to Sumire, he always ends up having Akechi’s life dangled before his eyes and can always choose to have him by his side.

TL;DR Goro Feral, Shuake Canon