#Maruki aesthetic

[epitomees]

~ Takuto Maruki’s Tags ~

More will be added as necessary. 

[marukidev]

pixel art skull study

[zimtdraws]

^^^ chaotic neutral on the yuri chart (they went to the same highschool and re-met in the. metaverse ig)

[kozh-lucium]

Phantom Thief Maruki AU

After days of re-redesigning the concept (I’m indecisive af), I finally settle down with this one 😵‍💫

Mask gave me the biggest challenge, as I wanted it to be barn owl inspired initially but couldn’t make it works.

Some of the old designs

[smolstarthief]

So here are some quick Aesthetic Boards I did based on an idea that hit me, Monarch Maruki and Sumire (more context further down below):

Monarch!Sumi Aesthetic Board with a fairytale/Swan Lake theme: "Shattered Princess KaSumire"

Monarch!Maruki: "Sorrowful Savior Takuto"

This was an idea that hit me while chatting on Discord: So basically, if you don't complete Maruki's Confidant you'll be barred from the 3rd Semester and get the Vanilla ending instead right? Wellll... Considering all that, this means that he and Sumi will be left to their own devices... As in their own problems won't be solved. Sumi would more or less remain in her Kasumi delusion until the filter potentially wears off and Maruki disappears to god knows where.

The unwitting inaction from Joker would then have MAJOR consequences in Strikers since that game can take place after either timeline... Either one or the other or even both fall prey to EMMA and become Monarchs themselves:

Maruki is self-explanatory as his desire to help people consumes him and kickstarts his self-destruction, warping his cognition and wanting to spread the Jail's influence further. People who have their desires stolen would just be mindlessly happy and "cured" of trauma or hardships (big or small). Much like canon, he thinks he's "helping" them. Maruki's "crown" would be a gold crown of thorns (biblical influence anyone?), representing his savior/martyr complex and how much he's really hurting. Removing it represents him renouncing his "godhood" and taking steps to move on and heal himself.

Sumi's is more or less revolving around herself and desperation to keep up the Kasumi filter/charade. Her own delusion and self-hatred festering. It's basically her living an ideal fairytale and not wanting to leave it. Anyone who got their desires stolen would join the Kasumi delusion. Basically, they all would view her as her dead sister and address her as such. Her "crown" would be her sister's red ribbon that her Shadow wears and then removes, symbolizing her finally letting go and developing her own identity and independence.

Idk, I just feel like with all horrifying implications that the now optional Vanilla ending are giving out... I feel like they would be easy prey to EMMA. Especially at their most vulnerable states. They both have the blueprints for having a Jail; Just need a design, layout, cores, trauma cells, etc.

[god-of-a-thousand-demons]

I’m really about to replay p5 for the third time just for joker. He’s my favorite character you could keep the entire rest of the game but as long as he was there I’d play it a million times

[the-phantom-crow]

“We all take our decisions and, we have to live with our consequences. So if anything happens to me don’t worry about it, let the dogs eat me, because that’s the life I chose...”

(insp' from here)

[eyeeatskin]

Persona Plagiarism?

Has anyone ever realized Maruki's Palace Theme sounds eerily similar to Tetris CD-I's Level 0? Gentle Madman: https://youtu.be/kexqSlkVTf0?si=xXFBEK49p_9aFrGC Level 0: https://youtu.be/f_SwDWKf-78?si=SQGNC0pDnEdxJ5Ix

[wyrdle]

i love my reject shuake aka maruki x ikutsuki

They're not rivals though lol. i think of them as tragic co-conspirators in most AUs where they're together. This was just for the aesthetics + giving Shuji Akechi's outfits and Personas haha. Both of them recognise the suffering of humanity, but respond in either extinction or salvation. In most of my renditions of them, Shuji is usually worshipping/following Takuto with the same zealous faith he shows in canon. So, you can imagine Black Mask as Joker's personal attack dog haha.

[lacystar]

Ryuji - Tommy (obviously)

joker - ranboo (bc you can project any personality onto him)

hawkmoth - dream (big bad)

Sae - sam (older sibling potential, breaking free from dream's control, cop shit)

sojiro - phil (dad)

ok and then beyond that im not so sure

Yusuke - fundy? (literally theyre both melodramatic and also. the fox thing. thats all I got. ig the daddy issues with madarame also could work)

futaba - fundy? (fits better overall and theyre both gingers. literally the storylines match up perfectly. cons to this: I have no idea who else would be Yusuke. also her aesthetic matches with purpled better but they have nothing beyond that in common at all.)

makoto - tubbo OR Quackity? (Quackity makes more sense in relationship to sam and also their personalities align better, but I could also see tubbo aligning with makoto okay. also I think makoto/joker is one of the better pairings and that fits with beeduo)

ann - tubbo OR Quackity? (Ann's story is abt like regaining sexual autonomy after abuse which makes me think of Quackity but like . ehh??? it feels weird to have him in this role and also with allium duo off the bat. tubbo is literally only an option here to fulfill bench trio for the first palace. im not happy with either of these)

Kamoshida - Schlatt (if Quackity is ann obviously)

akechi - wilbur? (akechi's ability to bring a rivalry up to an intense and insane level of crazy obsession is just sooo. idk. would work better if q was joker obvs but in this scenario it could be twisted to the weird burger van control thing Wilbur had over ranboo. "were the burgers good?" ass confrontation)

maruki - wilbur (they look the exact same I swear to god whenever maruki comes on screen it jump scares me fuck. also I think it would be fitting to have wilbur be the "twist" villain after dream as a final hurrah. revealing he has a palace at the end would be cool and make sense for the dsmps treatment of wilbur as a whole. im p set on this one).

Iwai - techno (if I can't find a better place for him)

haru - ???

sumire - ???

everyone else - ???

some other villain - bad (cool egg themed cult palace)

morgana - jack (would be funny but doesn't make any real sense)

lala - jack (drag queen slayyy)

maid teacher - hbomb

[adam-sadmon]

So a minor thing but I've always liked Maruki's treasure being a torch. I think it's a great malleable metaphor that's whatever the beholder wants it to be.

To the weak and the helpless it's a guiding light in the dark, a means out of the blackness of despair and into the golden light of Maruki's paradise.

I think Maruki thinks of it almost in the classical sense you see in a lot of the heavenly/Grecian art, the aesthetic of which comes up a bit in the second half of his palace. In this instance it's almost Promethean, his is the fire of enlightenment he gifts to the masses, though his idea of spiritual enlightenment, ironically, is ignorance.

[epitomees]

~ Zenkichi Hasegawa’s Tags ~ 

More will be added as needed. 

[marukidev]

I'm a full-time pixel artist doing her own thing, so if you like my work, you can support me by buying me a coffee for only $4 https://ko-fi.com/maruki

[chronicbeans]

Idk about you, but personally I like Wally because of his hair. I mean come on! He's clearly put a lot of effort into his appearance and I respect that.(But it was mainly because of fan fiction and fan art I'll be honest...and probably because he's kinda mysterious at the minute)

But in response to the writing for the whole thing, I respect the heck out of that! I love how welcomed I feel here and I honestly hope the best for you in regards to being able to having your writing recognized more, you definitely deserve it :)

Thank you so much for the compliment! I try my best to make people feel comfortable and accepted here! Oh, yeah, it is true that he is mysterious rn! If I had to make an educated guess as to why I like him so much, it is because he seems to either be evi/antagonist or in danger. At least, that's what the fandom seems to believe. I won't get into speculation though, for Clown's sake. I just tend to love characters that are horrible, sympathetic, go through absolute torment, and/or fit a certain aesthetic!

Putting a read more because I think I started ranting about the types of characters I love. Also, SPOILERS FOR A COUPLE OF GAMES/SHOWS I AM SORRY AHH-

Wally is just so out of left field in comparison to a lot of the other characters. Like... imagine going from uh... I think it was either Victor Frankenstein or Dr. Takuto Maruki, to a small little muppet man. (OH WAIT NO I JUST CHECKED. I actually went from Sunny's dad from Omori. I just lived my Smol bean interpretation of him. Everyone thinks he's evil or cruel but I don't really believe it, personally).

I also tend to love the characters that are not well liked (Like Sunny's dad omfg I love him-). An example is Dr. Daniel Dickens from Angels of Death. Everybody thinks he's really weird and creepy, which he is, but I find his character to be extremely intriguing and, as such, loveable! Same with Reverend Gray from Angels of Death. They both fit the villain/antagonist role, as well as fitting a certain aesthetic (mad doctor/scientist and evil priest).

Takuto Maruki fits the more sympathetic part, but he is also considered an antagonist. I wouldn't consider him evil, due to his plans being to try to make the world a place of eternal happiness in response to his own grief (kinda like "if I can't be happy, I'll make sure everybody else is"). I also don't believe I love him the exact same way everybody else does. Like, you either love him or hate him, but I haven't seen many people be like "I have a HUGE CRUSH on this man" besides the characters in the game.

Maison Talo, the character I mentioned in my post, is also kind of (not that much) in the same boat as Maruki, but in a more disturbing way. He isn't trying to help the world, he is just trying to survive, and it seems like he might've been on the brink of dying when you got there from the way I interpret some of his dialogue. He's GOTTA eat people, and depending on your choices/ending he seems to feel genuinely bad for having to eat you. So, at least for me, I can't help but feel a little bad. Kind of like when you see a lot of people calling a vampire or something a monster for trying to drink blood, but then you think to yourself "wait... Don't they HAVE to drink blood? They kind of have no choice."

OMG AND I ALSO LOVE THE OBSESSIVE CHARACTERS! I have never really been into romance, but I LOVE yanderes. I don't condone their actions, of course, and needless to say I would PROBABLY be horrified if I ever met one in real life. It is more like... the psychology of what would make a character a yandere that I like. Then, I can't help but get just as obsessed with them as much as they are with their love! I even kind of try to imagine what would make the other, non-yandere characters I love become a yandere, or if it might just be impossible.

The last kind I can think of right now are characters I relate to. I have a crush on Lewis Finch, from What Remains of Edith Finch, because I can relate in a small way to getting dragged into your daydreams. I have seen others interpret him as hallucinating, but I got more of a daydream vibe from him. It was the first time I saw a character that I can relate to in that aspect, so I really liked him! Then, like turned to a crush, overtime, as I investigated his room more in an attempt to figure out more about his personality.

I am so sorry this is so long! I just like to explain why I love certain character types! I kind of have a passion for it, maybe because I love writing characters, myself. It was a lot of fun to write this, too! YIPPEE!

If anybody got this far and want to talk about the types of characters they tend to like I will be more than happy to read the comments. I am very passionate about this sorta thing (ofc, not in a "YOU HAVE TO AGREE WITH ME ON THIS" but more of a "I love to talk about this" sorta way)!

[specterthief]

hi! headset anon back again, really like the idea that cendrillon is a product of maruki's palace / corrupted by him in some way.

thinking about it, Cendri's whole aesthetic is weirdly maruki- like compared to Vanadis who seems to fit sumi's colors a lot more, Cendrillon is white and iridescent in certain parts, and of course has the azathoth eyes and headset. no idea what this means for Ella but

really wish atlas did more with that but I'm chewing this idea now

cendrillon also has black skin with blue patterns on her arms, almost reminiscent of azathoth's hands... it would have been such cool foreshadowing if they'd actually made them the same patterns, but alas

ella has the same heart pattern on her veil as is on cendrillon's cape and the throne, but at least in the final release of the game*, there's not much still tying her to the aesthetic of the palace (which would make sense for her being sumi's final awakening, when she's free.)

there are white flowers all over the palace that most closely resemble stephanotis flowers, which are also known as "bridal veil":

but ella's flowers, while also white, are very clearly lilies instead, probably madonna lilies:

which are associated with the virgin mary, and maria is the ultimate persona of sumi's faith arcana, so that's a nice story/gameplay connection with her confidant.

(*i specify "in the final release of the game" because palace ruler maruki was originally dressed as a groom, which may have related to the wedding flowers in the palace:

...but whether the groom/bride thing between that and ella's design was ever an intentional correlation in some iteration of the story or just really unfortunate implications done accidentally is impossible to determine from the bits of early content left behind. his design was changed at the last minute to the final lab coat design either way, so it's not really relevant in trying to dissect ella's design as it relates to the final story, but since this design was still used so late in development i felt like i couldn't brush over it completely either.)

[smolstarthief]

“Do you finally acknowledge your hubris? Despite your insistence that you’ve changed, you still refused help… You will surely fall to your own demise with charred wings if you keep up this charade… Do you still seek freedom? True salvation? Then I shall help you fly again… I am thou, thou art I… Rise above your torment and take flight once more!”

Was messing around on Befunky's collage maker and did a quick aesthetic board for PT Maruki (with a Persona based on Icarus) to compliment my Odile Sumi.