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a really underappreciated aspect of goro's character is how much he wants/needs people to like him. like, people think he's "gotten over that" by third sem because he acts like he doesn't care and is an asshole. but like, that's so far from the truth. he still really wants people to like him. he's just completely given up on that happening. he's intentionally pushing people away on purpose by being the worst version of himself.

so something i really wish people explored more in post canon/redemption akechi fics is this desire to be liked. if goro starts to have hope again that he might be able to be loved, after akira and other thieves accept him as his true self, there's no way that's not going to affect how he acts. i just don't buy the idea that he's going to be a jerk all the time forever, not only because i think he needs to improve and be kinder as a part of his self betterment, but moreso simply because if he's shown kindness and accepted and gains friends, he's going to be terrified of losing them or accidentally pushing them away.

sure, they might accept him even while he was his worst, meanest version of himself, but that isn't enough to undo the trauma and akechi's fundamental worldview that he is inherently unlovable so long as he is himself. so there's going to be this conflict between his fear that he has to become the detective prince if he doesn't want to lose his friends, and the part of himself that hates the detective prince for being a false projection and his idealistic self he never could be.

i don't buy the idea that goro could comfortably be his true self with his friends in a "take it or leave it" sort of way. he might pretend to be secure in himself enough to act that way, but he's going to be internally terrified at all times that if he says or does the wrong thing they'll abandon him. at first he'll even accept it as inevitable, but the longer they stay, the more he's going to hope they could stay, and the more he's going to be terrified that they'll leave him like everyone else has.

i want more fics about goro struggling between the desire to be true to himself and the desperate need not to be abandoned again. i want more fics where he either decides to push all of them away because that's better than the alternative of them abandoning him, or he starts to transform himself and act in ways out of character just to keep them from leaving. or feeling like he has to offer them something or they'll abandon him because they'll never love him for himself. feeling like he owes them just for being loved. that sort of thing! just anything at all that explores how he thinks he is inherently unlovable that goes beyond simple self loathing. how is that going to affect how he acts in a world where he DOES have people who love him, but he can't accept that, because they must have some ulterior motive, no one could really love him for him? i think it's a really untapped part of post canon stuff.

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Akechi wasn't old enough to really understand the tragedy of his own death. He hadn't lived long enough to see how young the age of 18 is. It's the oldest he ever was.

Imagine him being 25. And realizing that 25 is still pretty damn young. And that is already 7 more years than he would have had.

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Waste is what you get when you throw something away, and I'm sure most Akechi fans know by now what they call orphans in Japan.

I'm sick and tired of hearing the complaint of "Why didn't Atlus explore Goro's parallels with [insert phantom thief here]! There's so much potential!" Yes. Goro parallels every Phantom Thief in ways that make me absolutely mentally ill. He is the Same as each and every single one of them. He's the same!!! Goro Akechi is just like them!!! He's a Phantom Thief in every meaningful way and it is a tragedy that they never became friends!

But like! That's the fucking point! The point is that Goro could have been friends with each and every single one of them. They all understand Goro in deeply intimate ways because they are the Same. But Goro rejects them because he believes it's too late. He's fallen too far down his path of self destruction! All the potential for beauty and belonging was wasted because he met them too late!

Yeah! It sucks!!! Because it's SUPPOSED to suck!!! Atlus drew parallels between them on purpose because they wanted us to notice and say, this is a tragedy. Things could have been different. Akechi is fundamentally the same as the rest of them and he could have joined them but he didn't because it was too late. They want us to long for the reality where it wasn't too late. They want us to think about how much of a tragedy it is that Goro was failed by everyone and everything until he's become a person who is incapable of accepting the salvation and acceptance the Phantom Thieves offered him in that engine room. They want us to think about how possible it is that any of the other Thieves became just like him if they were abandoned like he was. Goro Akechi is our heroes if they hadn't found each other. Goro Akechi is what any of them could have become. He is the antithesis. He is the cautionary tale. He is the warning for them, forcing them to realize, I could have become this, if things had only been a little different.

It's not a flaw that Goro's parallels with the Thieves are merely subtext. It's not a flaw that Goro rejects them and dies. It's the point of his arc! It's the point of his story! Goro can't accept help! He can't admit defeat! He can't become a Phantom Thief and he can't become their friend! All he can do is decide to trust them with his revenge and resign himself to his self-created fate at the hands of the puppet he constructed himself by becoming the tool of Shido. Goro Akechi's story is a tragedy and that! is! the! point!!!

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Something something akechis death being at the hands of a version of himself being a highly fitting death for him because of how many people died by his hand. So many people in the metaverse probably stared down the barrel of that same gun, the same man behind it, and died the same way that Akechi did. He couldn’t just put everything that he did behind him, because not only did that line of work come back for him, but it would have always followed him. Now or later, it would have killed him, he’s just lucky that he got the opportunity to make it an attempt at atonement by saving everyone else, rather than dying as the villain. He was his own final victim (or would have been, in the base game) . Idk what point I’m trying to make but it’s something about that

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characters who did not die and are now forced to live with the knowledge that they shouldve, characters that had made peace with said death but it never came and they have to live on, character who despite their wishes will still fight to live should death come for them again

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I love it when people complain about Akechi's more honest outfit.

Oh? Do you hate it? Does looking at it piss you off? Does it make him look like an idiot edgelord? Like some sort of Hot Topic reject? Do you grit your teeth or scowl every time to have to reference that horrid thing, be it for writing or drawing or what-have-you? Do you just wish it could be something, anything else other than black and navy bondage gear? Do you think it makes him look like an emo candy cane? Do you hate how much he looks like a tube?

Do you hate how confining it is, all belted up and clinging to his skin? How deliberately messy it is? Oh please, do go on about the incomplete armor, the metal gauntlets, the way his mask and helm look like some sort of weird mouth! Are you having trouble getting his mask to look right? How about the glossy, leathery material it's made of?

Do you want to redesign it? Make it something more comfortable to look at? More comfortable to wear? What are you talking about? It's plenty comfortable! It's not some stiff, overly starched suit with tasseled epaulettes. Much easier to move around in.

Does his rebellion make him look like a prisoner? Do his stripey pajamas look ugly? Do you think it just plain looks bad? Does it seem like a poor design choice? Is it a little too heavy-handed? Tell me how stupid it looks. Does it annoy you that it changes appearance between the engine room and third semester? Do you think he did that on purpose? Do you hate that costume whenever you see it, how the colors look against each other, how he has more pointless belts than a Kingdom Hearts character, how he's still trapped even when he unleashes his "true self?"

Do you think he hates it too?

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Idk if this has been asked yet but how was it like when you first awakened to your persona?

Remind yourself of all the reasons why it might be called an awakening.

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So I’ve been drawing goro a lot recently and hoo boy. Black mask outfit my abhorred. I legit could not stand drawing it anymore so I made my own redesign ✌️

I’m still not 100% satisfied but goro akechi himself approves of it so what more could I ask for

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I redesigned Akechi’s 2nd metaverse outfit months back and forgot to post it.

I thought a jester theme would fit him good,

I also put three spades on him because of the tycoon mini game.

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actually because i keep seeing polls around that vastly underestimate how long most people have been on this site, might as well make my own!

you know the drill, more reblogs equals more votes!

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on forgiveness: best girl haru okumura

OKAY LET’S TALK ABOUT how most people’s idea of Haru (besides her being axe crazy or some shit) begins and ends with the first half of this line to Akechi. And also babble about how everyone reacts in the engine room for a bit:

Just to be clear here: Akechi murders Haru’s father. Not only that, he murders him after his change of heart, at the point he has a chance to turn around and do better and stop being, y’know, kind of a tremendous asshole. Would it have worked? Haru will never know. Akechi stole that from her.

However. Haru is also not a tremendous asshole. I know, I know, y’all want her to go crazy ape batshit with vengeance and her axe. However, Haru doesn’t believe in vengeance (that’s Akechi’s gig, and maybe Ann’s). She does believe in redemption and giving people chances, and she (besides Joker, who like, doesn’t have lines) is the Phantom Thief who embodies this most in regard to Akechi.

so let’s take a look

Let’s start with the second half of that line. “I sympathize with you”. And let’s put it together with the next line:

Haru understands why Akechi might have acted as he did. And when Cognitive Akechi arrives, she’s the one who tells Akechi it isn’t too late:

Because, make no mistake, Haru is also a child of a terrible father. A father who used her to advance himself. Haru relates to Akechi. She sees what she could have become in him—someone just like her father.

This becomes clearer later on in the scene, when the bulkhead door comes up—and let’s just take a moment here to see what “unforgivable” looks like.

Here’s Ryuji banging on the door as it comes up:

Here’s Yusuke:

And Makoto:

Now note that Haru and Futaba (and Morgana and Ann) have not come forward at this point. But what’s Akechi’s response, by the way, when you tell him you’ll hang on to the glove and keep your promise?

He fucking smiles. Tiny little smile. Sad, barely there, but a real smile, behind the bulkhead where nobody can see it. I swear, people are like “oh, he only dies to save you because it’s the only way left he can get revenge, it’s all part of the manipulation” no, get out of my hair with that shit, I will literally eat you all. He passes up his revenge. He starts his arc as someone who has nothing but revenge to live for, and he ends it (for now) passing up that revenge for someone who matters to him. That’s important.

And that’s level 10: incidentally this is when he gets Endure, “survive an otherwise fatal attack with 1hp remaining”

After this Cogkechi and Akechi face off, and that is when Haru comes forward:

And Ann:

… and then the gunshots, not quite in unison. Bye, kids, we’ll miss you. But note that it is Futaba who only speaks up now—to do her job, not to express any concern for Akechi. It’s Futaba who gives him a far harder ride in Mementos later in the third semester than Haru does. And yet I feel like I see Futaba easily forgiving Akechi all the time and Haru almost not at all?? idk.

so what happens next?

Well, here’s Haru when they resolve to leave:

She’s sad they couldn’t save him. Like her father, Akechi will never have a chance to do better.

what about the third semester?

So in the third semester Akechi comes out as an axe crazy killer and also kind of an interpersonal asshole, but he does seem to have laid off the hired killings, so that’s, uh, good?

This understandably impacts the way the engine room fell out: nobody wants to admit what went on there. Akechi doesn’t; Akechi wants to keep all of them at an emotional radius of ten thousand kilometres, for reasons of his own. The PTs certainly don’t, because third semester Akechi is an immense pain in the ass. and about as friendly as a porcupine on PCP.

Still, he comes back on the team for reasons, and Haru and Futaba understandably have feelings about this. Here are Haru’s:

But this isn’t all that goes on. What about all those Mementos chats?

Akechi doesn’t talk to the other Phantom Thieves—if they say anything, he doesn’t respond. (Sumire also doesn’t, which gives me an image of her, Akechi and Joker stuck next to each other speaking only in Royal Trio in-jokes.) But he’s not saying anything unless he chooses to say something—when the others respond.

And who responds how? Well, there are moments of connection—more than a few. But responses to Akechi often range from passive-aggressive through mocking to outright aggressive. And this is perfectly fair: make no mistake, these guys are not friends.

How does the count stack up?

Yusuke has the lowest number of responses to Akechi—he has five. Ann and Makoto each have seven. Futaba, Morgana and Ryuji each have eight. And Haru?

Haru has nine chats in response to Akechi. She has more than anyone else. And the reason she has more chats than anyone else is that there is one chat that only she responds to:

Yeah. Akechi is not someone who enjoys being cooped up in the back of a catbus. And when he complains about it, it’s Haru who’s the only one to reply. The Japanese is not that patronising, by the way

Haru is trying. She doesn’t want to sit down and hang out with him—she won’t join him in the Thieves’ Den, for instance. But her responses to him range from passive-aggressive through conversational. They are hard to interpret—she’s not comfortable with him; she’s keeping up her mask. She’s not necessarily concerned for him or welcoming—she’s saying the “right things”, making conversation; she joins in when they all laugh at him for bouldering. Haru’s mask has a lot in common with Akechi’s many masks. But she also has that one chat that only she replies to.

Here are her nine responses to various things Akechi says:

Haru: I think this [outfit] fits you better, after seeing how you fight. Haru: I’ve heard you don’t actually need to be that strong to boulder. Maybe I should give it a shot. Haru: It’s pretty hard to imagine a group of phantom thieves successfully getting around on bicycles. Haru: Well, the car does have ears and a tail, so I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to tell… Haru: Well, no one gives them orders, so it appears they just wander around. Haru: As long as you’re fighting alongside us, we’re happy to have you. Haru: Thanks for the concern. You should stay mindful of your health, too. Haru: I wonder… You can’t underestimate the Tokyo subway system, though. It’s pretty long. Haru: Then what say we take a little break when we reach the next rest area?

and what’s the takeaway here?

Pretty much this: forgiveness in P5 is complicated. The story is all about responsibility and redemption and the harm you do others. Even if you can’t forgive someone, that doesn’t mean you can’t work with them. It doesn’t make them not part of your group. It doesn’t mean you can’t take an interest in them. The Phantom Thieves have a bond with Akechi regardless of what he’s done. Regardless of whether they’re “friends” or “forgiven” or whether they will ever be close. That bond doesn’t have to be pretty, or fun, or even something most of them want too much to do with, but it is there. He is, in the end, as close to being one of them as you get.

And Haru does take an interest in Akechi: more than any of the others bar Joker, Haru is the one who seems to relate to him. Haru doesn’t model judgement (that’s Futaba)—Haru is modelling understanding, and reparative justice. She doesn’t want to be Akechi’s friend; they’re hugely unlikely to ever be friends. Any relationship they have is likely to be distant, based primarily on mutual obligation. But she understands him, to a degree.

Let Haru be the wonderful human being she is. #theend

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some design for akechi that i like but don't have an au where it can be

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Goro celebrates Akira Kurusu’s death with cheap cup noodles and a bottle of wine.

The noodles are a month past its expiration date, and the wine has been sitting in his cabinet for three whole years untouched. (The latter was from Shido—a gift celebrating Goro’s first completed mission.)

The noodles are soggy. The wine is sour. They taste horrible together, and Goro devours both like it’s his last meal.

The TV blasts the news Goro already knows into his ears. The leader of the anonymous terrorist group Phantom Thieves, arrested just last night, is reported to have committed suicide in his questioning cell…

“He didn’t commit suicide,” Goro says to the screen. “I killed him, and it felt incredible.”

The identity of the Phantom Thieves’ illustrious leader has not yet been disclosed to the public, given the severity of their perpetuated crimes…

“Akira Kurusu was a nobody. He lived in a dusty attic in a stranger’s café. His parents disowned him for being too good of a person.”

Police investigation has revealed that he stole the guard’s gun to end his own life. Results show that he was likely to have died instantly…

“He died from one shot.” Goro drunkenly lifts the hand holding the remote and mimes shooting at the chattering television. “Just like that. He ran around like he was invincible, you know. I almost believed it when he told everyone that he would be okay. I half expected to open the door to find an empty seat, and then to have to call Shido-san to tell him that Joker got away. I thought I might die tonight due to my failure. But I didn’t fail. I killed that son of a bitch with one shot. He lost. I won.”

The TV shuts off.

“I won,” Goro’s reflection repeats.

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(work in progress for oneshot i plan to post soon!)

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[id: a red userbox with a black border and black text that reads “this user is goro akechi.” on the left is an image of goro akechi from persona 5. /end id]

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skrunkles I forgot to post

also please tell me you all have seen that “social battery” pin that trended on twitter a while ago I’m sick

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I love that all the playable doctors, except Naomi since she was chasing down a bomber, were down for an impromptu escape plan. Like Gabe and Maria were leading the FBI away, Hank was guarding the door (and I almost wish Holden had pushed it to violence, it would not have ended the way Holden would have thought) and Tomoe offered to take over the procedure CR-S01 was doing so he could run.

The only flaw in their plan was Cr-S01 didn't run. He wasn't concerned for his safety or freedom. His only desire was to save the little girl in front of him.

Holden said it was ironic that that CR-S01 would throw away everything for a patient, but honestly I think it's a case of evil can't understand good. He can't understand a good person who would put everything on the line to save an innocent, even at their own risk.