#i just started playing and all i know is apparently akechi is the bad guy?

[personallyfive]

my ren and i really like ryuji

things about my ren

She/her goes by him/him cause it's easy just wanted to go to school likes ryuji is silly tries to go out of her way for ppl is really nice doesn't want to cause any trouble writes in diary a lot more then she should

[akiwirain]

Persona’s Talk AU??

I keep seeing all of these cool headcanons about each of the group’s personas talking to them throughout their day ... and ofc I have to expand upon it, because it sounds so cool??

So imagine:

Ann: her persona is as fierce and fiery as she is. she’s constantly giving advice to Ann and just genuinely helping out. Carmen is supposed to be known for her charm and using that to make men fall for her, then discarding them.

Cue Ann getting asked out at school by some guy ...

“Uhh, well, you see—“

“Ooo, tell him yes!! He’s a bit cute!!”

“....No.”

Ann never listens to Carmen’s comments about woeing the men around her. Carmen isn’t the happiest about it, but Ann doesn’t mind much. She isn’t ready for a relationship and her persona will have to just accept that.

Ryuji: Using his awakening as an opening point, Captain Kidd reallt wants to just ... wreak havoc and let loose. He’s almost a fun side in Ryuji’s head, constantly wanting to have an adventure. He also helps a lot with Joker, by giving Ryuji advice on how to be a good right hand man.

Morgana: Zorro is known as a defender, along with being a masked outlaw (most of the personas are based off outlaws oof). I would imagine he would just aid Morgana in his quest to help others.

Cue Zorro chastising Morgana when he makes comments about Ryuji:

“He won’t get better with that talk.”

“Tsk, if he even has the mental capacity to get better.”

“Everyone has the ability to get better ... including you.”

Let’s just say Morgana does a lot of tuning out in these moments.

Yusuke: Goemon was a skillful individual who would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Using this, I’d imagine Goemon would help aid Yusuke in his aid to find who he is. His entire confidant link could be Goemon trying to help him find his way. When Yusuke gets offered the deal, Goemon is sure to tell him not to accept. Goemon wants Yusuke to make his own path and have a sense of self in all of his work. To not be tainted by greed, like his master.

In this way, Goemon pushes Yusuke and Yusuke is quick to agree and accept the help. Goemon maybe views Yusuke with a certain ... guardian-like view. I’d imagine he’d be proud when Yusuke finds his way.

Makoto: Johanna is based off of a Pope who disguised herself as male to well, be a Pope. She essentially goes against societies norms and with this, I believe she would push Makoto to push through the box she had previously been in. Whenever an adult asks something of Makoto now, Johanna is quick to inform her to choose her own path—be her own person.

When Makoto gets a bad feeling about who her friend is dating, Johanna backs her up.

“I agree, this man does seem rather suspicious..”

“Exactly! I have to investigate further.”

Johanna wouldn’t be afraid of trouble and would be just as rash as Makoto. In the end, they would each have good intentions, but wouldn’t want to be held back by the norms of society.

Futaba: Necronomicon almost seems like a reference to how Futaba was Medjed, but yet fake Medjed’s were made. Necronomicon was a book that ended up getting fakes circulated (along with a cult following ... yikes). I would imagine Necronomicon to be partially quiet. It wouldn’t say much, except when things get immensely serious and Futaba is spiraling.

Futaba might be out, seeing people and freaking out, but Necronomicon gives a simple,

“It’ll be alright.”

Somehow it works and Futaba doesn’t feel as alone.

Haru: Milady is essentially an independent woman (who don’t need no man (forgive me)). She was fierce and apparently rather manipulative and was branded a criminal, along with a villain. She would also bring others to ruin, more focused on personal gain.

I would imagine this would come up when Haru is so focused on being selfless. She has to overcome her reasoning and realize that no, she wants to change her father’s heart because she doesn’t want to marry, even if it’s partially for the people her father hurt. Milady would be quick to tell her to unleash this side of herself, learn to be selfish. I’d imagine after losing her father, Milady would be quick to comfort her, would be quick to lead her to want retribution for whomever was the black mask.

Maybe even lead Haru to thinking it was the Phantom Thieves at first?

Cue Sae meeting with Haru about the calling card and mentioning the principal:

“It seems we were deceived, my dear.”

“No. No, it couldn’t have been them. The-The principal ... that..”

Cue angst and Haru having to talk to the others, while Milady still is in the back of her mind, doubtful. Eventually she quiets, realizing that Haru truly belongs with them. She wants Haru happy, after all.

Sumire: Cendrillon is really just a French adaption of Cinderella. In essence, it’s Sumire putting on that gown and playing pretend (as in, being Kasumi, because Maruki allowed her to do so). Cendrillon relates to Sumi’s wishes and that’s what leads to them being so easily manipulated by Maruki.

Cendrillon, after being awakened, helps to keep Sumire motivated. She would be talkative during Sumire’s gymnastic practices and would get Sumire to truly do her best.

When Sumire finds out the truth after watching the video, Cendrillon is silent and practically in the same pain Sumire is. She knows what it’s like for that magic to disappear.

This is where things get interesting ... multiple persona users:

Akechi:

Robin Hood would be Akechi’s more ... childish side. The side that was more innocent and truly wanted justice for what happened to his mother, along with himself. Robin Hood is known to steal from the rich and give to the poor, much like Goemon. Robin Hood would be the side of Akechi that pushes him to do good.

Whenever Akechi is around the Phantom Theives, Robin Hood is loud. He likes to remind Akechi that .. “maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we belonged here. With them.”

Loki, on the other hand, is based off a trickster god in mythology. He is known for both mischief and trickery. I imagine this side is awakened from Akechi’s sense of revenge. It’s the more enraged side of him that he uses to paste the mask on day by day.

Loki likes to be loud and opinionated. He likes to remind Goro of his plans and how he can’t turn back now.

The two personas would essentially fight a lot and it drives Akechi insane.

Cue Akechi getting a text from Shido about a target in mementos:

“Come on, let’s just get it done now. We need to enact our revenge after all, don’t we?”

“We could stop now. We could end your pitiful father’s tirade here and enter his palace..”

Akiren: Arsène is his starter persona, so I’ll start there.

Arsène is known for targeting criminals and is essentially an anti-hero. He’s also known as a Gentlemen Thief! With this, I think he’d really just encourage Akiren’s will of rebellion.

Cue Akiren getting to LeBlanc late one night after a mementos run:

“Ah, you’re back.”

“Quick, think of a lie.”

“Uh-“

“You were at the bathhouse!”

“I was at the bathhouse...”

“Okay?” Sojiro never really cares and gets back to his crossword puzzles. Akiren is still grateful to Arsène anyway.

Ah, but his other personas...

At first, it’s okay. He has a small arsenal that he carries around and while some are louder than others, it’s tolerable.

Until Igor raises his stock.

Eventually, he has 12 personas in one sitting and it’s never quiet. No matter what persona he’s holding in stock, they like to talk to one another or make comments on his daily life.

Or, alternatively, it only matters what mask he is wearing at the time.

Say, he’s hanging with a certain friend, so he cues up the matching arcana of that friend. That persona is quick to make comments on how to achieve max results with that friend and how to advance their confidant.

Cue Akiren meeting with Ann and cuing up a Lover’s persona.

I’d imagine some of the persona get aggregated at never being useful besides being used for comments and never for combat.

Anyway! That’s all the Phantom Thieves.

I don’t know if I’ll do Maruki?? Or even maybe the second/third awakening personas? I think it might be an interesting concept though!

[pinnochiro]

pinn reviews - final fantasy xv

a long ramble about final fantasy fifteen that sort of looks like a review, as written by someone who finished the game fifteen minutes ago and needs to get these words out of his head. spoilers inbound.

i'm a pretty big fan of video games. i don't know what my first was, but it was probably either banjo and kazooie or mario kart 64, at my cousin's house when i was very small. i think that video games as a medium are so interesting, since the fact that video games are inherently interactive changes the way that they tell any story. it's a shame that despite loving video games so much, i'm absolutely terrible at them.

i'm absolute dogshit at video games. whenever i boot up something new, i always play on easy mode because. i'm that bad. unfortunately, this means that a lot of video games are simply. impossible for me to beat. that's fine, as at the moment i live with my good friend lizz, who is certifiably Good at Video Games, and so we've been playing video games together for a little bit now. typically this means that she will actually play the majority of the game while i sit with her and watch, but occasionally i'll have a go, but she'll end up with the controller as soon as a boss fight or puzzle or a mechanic i just can't seem to grasp shows up. we recently played through the entirety of the kingdom hearts series together, and this was an absolute blast of a time. i'm glad to say that i adore kingdom hearts now, and it's become one of my hyperfixations, which you might be able to tell from my icon. but we'd finished the kingdom hearts series, and we were left to move onto something else. we'd also played final fantasy 7 remake, so in my wisdom, i suggested that we play another final fantasy game.

we looked through the ff games that were already purchased on our consoles thanks to lizz's uncle, and eventually, we decided that we should play. all of them. however to start, we were going to play final fantasy xv, 15, and work our way backwards through the mainline, single-player games.

i'd heard that xv wasn't very good, but honestly, i was still quite curious. one person who i'd been following on twitter for years was pretty obsessed with the main party members, to the point where i knew their names and what-not even though i didn't have much of an idea what the game itself was about. i remember watching a video by supereyepatchwolf a few years ago about how the game sucked, but i couldn't remember much of the details, and i knew, based on my obsession with kingdom hearts, that xv had started as a different game called final fantasy versus xiiv. i don't know all the details about versus thirteen, but i do know that it was originally helmed by the creator of my beloved kingdom hearts, mr tetsuya nomura, and that after many years, the vast majority of the game was thrown out, nomura wasn't in charge any more, and the whole thing was rewritten and reworked, which sounds like a fairly rough development cycle. but so what, i don't care about gameplay. i want to play the video game with those cute guys that i see fanart of on twitter, and lizz seemed happy enough to play through it with me.

and so we started final fantasy xv. i've been told that since the game was practically dead on arrival, they threw in a bunch of new content and reworked a lot of the early game before i got my hands on it. so my gameplay started with a scene of the four guys fighting some demon dude on fire and they're all old and grotty. whatever, that cutscene ends and we're put into a combat tutorial. that's over and we're on the road in what looks to be central america, pushing a car.

our four leading lads are noctis, the prince of the lucis empire, his best friend prompto, his bodyguard, gladio, and his chef and other things, ignis. i do quite like the main four members of the party in xv. prompto is quite easily my favourite, voiced by robbie daymond of goro akechi fame and with a bunch of fun little animations and quips that make him very likeable. he gets extremely excited at the idea of riding chocobos and has what i considered the best scene of the game, where he and noctis meet on a motel rooftop and discuss prompto's imposter syndrome, since he's only part of noctis' official retinue as his best friend. noctis is a fairly typical main protagonist, he's in love with a woman he hasn't seen in eight years and needs to go marry her or something, i don't care. gladio is a tough macho man with a mullet who wears leather jackets and wields a greatsword, and is apparently only 22, which is at least 10 years younger than i assumed. ignis is a strategist and chef, who takes on the most authoritative role and constantly tells noctis to not drive his car at night. i was not a fan of ignis at the start, but he grew on me, especially with how hard the game hit me with his personal arc. the four boys are off, driving to noctis' wedding in a different country across the desert when their car breaks down. we then run into the first issue of the game.

cindy is a mechanic. she also has her ass and tits out constantly, like your sleazy uncle's shirt with a naked woman was instead semi-alive as a video game person. she fixes your car and acts fairly sexual and it's just like. why do we have to do this. aren't we over overtly sexualised women in video games who have no reason for the way they dress other than the character designer was horny? whatever, i like women as much as the next guy, but cindy's design just. makes me feel so uncomfortable.

anyways you get to do a little driving around with the boys, until you stay the night before catching the boat to your fiance. overnight, you find out that noctis' kingdom has been basically destroyed by an invading empire called niflheim, and practically everyone noctis knows, including his father, are dead. you learn that noctis and his bride to be are also assumed dead, with noctis hearing his own death announcement on the radio. the game has a bunch of added cutscenes that are actually footage from the three-hour-long prequel movie that came out after the game, are extremely hard to follow and honestly i had no idea what i was looking at. anyways, noctis' family is dead, so it's time to do some hunting sidequests.

that brings us to the combat, i suppose. rather than the turn-based or even active turn-based combat that the series is known for, xv opts for more modern action rpg-styled combat. i was, naturally, terrible at this, but i managed to get around it with the fact that. it is almost impossible to die in this video game, provided you have enough items. the game allows you so much time to heal yourself that there's practically no way to have your entire party wipe unless you're doing absolutely terrible, and even then, your party members will probably try and heal you themselves before that happens. lizz tells me that the combat is boring, you just push the same button over and over and then you win. i do appreciate that, for someone like me who is terrible at reading enemy movements, there is a giant button that pops up on screen that tells you when to push the block button, but even then i was prone to fucking it up. whether that's the bad game design or my terrible gaming abilities is up to you to decide. anyways, the game is fairly easy but has annoying combat, your teammates limit breaks will only land about 50% of the time (or never, if you are gladio) and i was still bad at it, so i didn't have all that much fun.

instead of an active levelling system, the game will only tally your character's level ups when you either make camp or visit a hotel. camping is, in my opinion, the only saving grace of this game. each time you make camp, you get to see the characters doing fun little camping activities together and just hanging out, ignis will cook up a new meal in a dramatic fashion and everyone will compliment him and eat it off their coleman's branded plates, it's just very fun. you also get to see what pictures prompto has taken, which is one of my favourite gameplay features. prompto's passion is photography, and while i support him in this wholeheartedly, his picture taking skills are, quite frankly, awful. the game will randomly take shots while you're on the move, which leaves you with a delightful selection of awkward poses, characters hidden behind bushes, pictures taken while someone is half-dead in combat, and snaps where the natural lighting absolutely makes it impossible to tell what's going on. it's hilarious and going through prompto's collection of photos each night is honestly the best part of the game. we managed to wind up with a few shots that, even despite being scripted events, turned out absolutely terrible, and i will cherish those forever.

anyways, since noctis' father and fiance are dead, that leaves him the king of lucis. the only important person to make it out of the capital alive tells you to drive to the middle of nowhere, where he randomly springs on you. hey. go into a bunch of these dungeons and absorb a bunch of swords, this is your destiny as king and how you will defeat the empire. noctis goes, uh, alright i guess, and you're set loose again to wander around for a bit collecting the 'royal arms'. this plot point wasn't explained well but hey, whatever, we're collecting the glowy swords and that's fine.

you're introduced at some point to ardyn, the main antagonist. he's old, kind of groady and wears a fedora. he's a dick to you and talks about his automobeeel. apparently my friend miri thinks he's hot, she is wrong.

i can't remember what happens specifically but you're told that your fiance is still alive and in fantasy venice, and she's talking to the gods on your behalf to borrow their powers. there's a mission where you follow some purple trees that are electric, and you do that i guess. i enjoyed riding the chocobos around, but couldn't care much for the plot at this point. ardyn leads you to a volcano, where you fight a giant lava god. he tries to step on you and i, a denizen of the internet and with an active fear of foot fetishists, was extremely uncomfortable. noctis becomes friends with foot man and a lightning god who lived in those trees, and ardyn steals your car.

very upset by this, noctis and his gang risk everything to sneak into a military base and steal it back. because this is a video game, this works out fine.

there's a little mining city which is all about Girl Power, because all the Women run the Mining Industry like Girl Bosses, and you hang around there for a bit. because all the women are so Empowered, they wear bikinis all the time with overalls over the top. gladio decides he needs to fuck off for a bit, i have no idea what he does since i haven't played the dlc, and then he comes back with another scar. you hang out with his sixteen year old sister, who has a crush on the engaged and 20-year old noctis, and then you drive her to a lighthouse. when she's in your party, she can't really fight, but she gets a pink chocobo and i thought that was very cute. we turned out own chocobo white and lizz named him 'jones' after a mount she has in ffxiv.

eventually, you have a long boat ride over to fantasy venice. this is the part where the game stops being 'fun with a few issues in combat and a rushed and poorly told story.' the open world, which was a main feature with a bunch of little areas to find where noctis can fish, little hunting sidequests and random photo spots where prompto takes touristy photos, is now gone, and it will not return for the entire rest of the game. you can 'go back in time', but the open world was the most enjoyable part of the game, and it kind of really sucks that the main story doesn't let you have any more freedom like that.

after arriving in fantasy venice, you have a talk with fantasy hillary clinton and beg her to let your girlfriend summon a god into the middle of her city. hillary agrees, and you don't get to meet up with your fiance, because even if the game is constantly telling you how much noctis loves her, there is. barely any interactions between the two in the entire game. from what i can tell, they met when noctis was a child and they haven't seen each other in ten years but are still fantasy dog pen-pals. noctis marrying her was supposed to make an alliance or something like that, but her brother has betrayed her to the army. noctis' girlfriend is also an oracle, which means she can heal people, i guess? everyone talks about how important she is and she's constantly telling people that she needs to use her powers to help noctis but she's practically a non-entity.

as can be expected of most female love interests in a game primarily focused on men, noctis' fiance is killed while summoning a god for noctis to befriend. noct gets very mad about this, and turns super saiyan and kills the god back, but his girlfriend is dead and that's super sad you guys. there's a beautiful prerendered cutscene where she says goodbye to noctis but since we barely know her, and we've only been told over and over that they're in love without anything to actually well, show this, it didn't have much of an impact. fantasy venice is destroyed, and ignis is blinded while trying to help calm the giant raging god.

iggy's blindness and how the game makes you account for this and grow to care for him was one of the highlights, in my opinion, as well as crushingly depressing. while i'm not disabled and have no right to say if this was 'good disabled representation' or anything like that, i believe that the game handles it decently enough. the group falls apart as noctis is upset about his girlfriend, gladio is extremely mad that noctis won't care for ignis, and prompto just wants everyone to get along. there's a mission where gladio constantly yells at you passive aggressive things to noctis about how he's a cunt for running, which is obnoxious, but the character arc itself is fairly strong. when you make camp, ignis can't cook anymore, so everyone eats cup noodles in a depressing ass cutscene. ignis remains in your party for the rest of the game despite his disability, and he doesn't magically regain his sight like other fantasy media would do, which at the very least i think is good. i'm not sure what the opinion of actual disabled people is of the character, considering how often disabled characters are either turned into misery porn to make the abled audience be glad that isn't them and if ignis' arc falls into this trap, but i hope that it wasn't handled too poorly, as that would just be another terrible mark in this game's list of bad moves.

the characters eventually make it to the evil empire's capital, which is abandoned and filled with daemons. the characters learn that ardyn is super evil and taught the king of the empire how to turn humans into daemons, which has now happened to the entire city. the 'magitek suits', presumed to be enchanted armour that fights as the empire's infantry, actually house the souls of the human-turned daemons. honestly i like this as a plot point but the game handles it pretty terribly. there could have been more lead up to this, the explanation is pretty lacking, and prompto's Big Plot Twist is. terribly handled. turns out that prompto was born in the empire and was going to be one of those empty soldier daemons, but he was rescued by people belonging to noctis' empire. not that the game tells you that. instead, prompto goes 'turns out i'm one of ... them' and Does Not Elaborate. The game doesn't tell you shit, not about prompto's past, not about how he feels about this, not about how anyone else feels about this either because the other party members just go 'oh that sucks, good thing you're not evil' and the scene ends. robbie daymond tries so hard to sell these terrible, terrible lines, and it almost entirely fails, i'm so sorry prompto. fortunately because i'm a nosy ass, i read prompto's wikia page and knew the plot twist ahead of time, because i don't think i would have even registered it if i didn't.

anyways everyone in the evil empire is dead and ardyn starts talking about how he's immortal and an ancient king of noctis' country but the gods thought he sucked because he's too evil. i missed most of this because the cats got the zoomies and were dashing across the couch right in the middle of his speech so i can't tell you anything else. noctis tries to get a big magic crystal to fight him and instead. gets schlorped inside.

TEN YEARS LATER

yes then ten years actually pass while noctis is asleep. the game shows this by switching the head on noctis' character model to have a beard, but that's it, no changes in animations or whatever. the sky is permanently night and only one human civilisation remains, the rest destroyed by daemons. as a plot point, this ends up feeling. extremely worthless. why was noctis asleep for ten whole goddamn years? so we can wake up and go 'damn it sucks out here'. but it's barely even a like, incentive to fix everything, because you have a long talk with a former child you were friends with where he talks about how humanity is still going fine and everyone's okay and the world has moved on without you. it feels. pointless. when you meet up with your party members, they are exactly as you left them, only with slightly different character models. there is no change in the voice performance, the character's movements or how they talk to show that they've been without you for ten years. they barely mention it. i'm just. so confused as to why they decided that a ten year timeskip was the way to go? since nothing really changes, couldn't you have made it like, two years? one year? six months?? have the characters react a little more? something??? at least if it was only a year or so i wouldn't have to deal with the fact that noctis looks like norman reedus with his shitty facial hair now.

anyways after that there's a bunch of long and boring boss fights. you fight some dead kings for some reason, your party members get a little bit to talk about how cool they are and how much they love noctis, and then you meet up with ardyn. there's another boring boss fight and god this was only a few hours ago but it's already gone from my head. you summon the gods and the old kings to beat the shit out of him after you both go super saiyan again? there's incredible music but it feels barely earned and just kind of eh. anyways, noctis dies, which was the price of using the crystal of light or whatever the fuck. his ghost marries his fiance's ghost finally, and they smile as they look at one of prompto's pictures. you can pick any picture you want to go here, and then the credits roll, showing all of the pictures you saved of prompto's shots. showing me all the pictures at the end is honestly lovely, but it really only served to remind me of how much more fun the game was in the first half. and that's the end, of final fantasy xv.

so what did i think of the story? it's terribly cobbled together and struggles to get you to feel anything and play out all the plot beats. you feel awful for the countless employees who spent years working on the beautiful cutscenes only to have them be in this game, which sucks and the story barely gets through. there were parts that i enjoyed, mostly the thing about the daemons being people, but honestly the rest of it is a mess. it's hard to follow at the best of times and just awkward and terribly written at the worst. the ending is cheap, and it doesn't feel like you've actually accomplished anything. i left that game feeling numb and empty, sad that i'd wasted so much time to end up with such a colossal failure of a conclusion.

i had fun with the game when it was my four little guys running around doing sidequests and camping together. after the midway point of the game, there's none of that, and you're bogged down into a plot that just pushes you from point a to point b and boring overlong bossfight to boring overlong bossfight. the character moments between your party are a lot of fun, but the second you hit fantasy venice, everything is pretty much on rails and you can't do anything except what the game tells you explicitly to do.

should you play this game? no lol. if anything i've mentioned about the story interests you, you'll be better off watching a lore video or reading the wiki. if you do want to play it after all that, just don't proceed after the myrthril refining quest, it's pretty much all downhill from there. will i play the dlc? unlikely, i think lizz and i will just watch a cutscene movie of those.

this game left me feeling empty and numb and not in a fun way. i wanted, so, so hard to like this game, and it all crashed around me in a beautifully overproduced and confusingly written cascade. i love you prompto, but even your cute little freckly face and terrible photography can't save this trainwreck of a game.

tl;dr - final fantasy xv sucks. i hope that 13, our next ff game, will be better.

[gobureis]

My personal SW5 impressions of characters after playing the game once (plus some lol)  

note: I’m talking about all of them as characters in a video game. 

----

Nobunaga - ngl I love him. I feel his depiction might become a bit controversial among fans, but as a story it’s great imho.

Mitsuhide - I love him too lol deep down he’s pretty similar to his SW4 counterpart, but he also isn’t. He made different choices, and there are different settings (i.e. Akechi castle being burned down and his whole family dying) that made a difference, and then there’s his relationship with Nobunaga [but it isn’t just Nobunaga who influences Mitsuhide]

Hideyoshi - he’s such a fun character. It’s always a hit or miss with Hideyoshi and me in various media, and I admit i wasn’t a big fan of some parts of SW4 Hideyoshi, but this younger version who is all about making it big and becoming a powerful daimyou is refreshing and fun. There’s some rivalry between him and Mitsuhide (mostly one-sided), and respect for Ieyasu. The Hashiba group (Hideyoshi, Hanbei, Kazuuji, Kanbei) are very warm and almost family-like

Ieyasu - he’s also a nice character. I liked SW4 Ieyasu and the Tokugawa clan a lot, and you can still feel the bonds here as well. He’s very, not serious, but he knows he’s not good enough and he works really hard to become a good samurai. He’s very loyal to Nobunaga, and he’s like a puppy around him. It’s cute.

Imagawa Yoshimoto - he’s pretty much there only to be a villain

Shingen - I was never particularly interested in Shingen (and Takeda clan and Sanada clan as a whole in SW4) so having Shingen as the enemy officer only is like shrug (he’s fun in the Uesugi vs Takeda stage in Mitsuhide’s chapter, but his presence isn’t strong overall, I know there’s one Ieyasu stage where Takeda are with them but I forgot what it’s about)

Kenshin - LOL this time Kenshin got some Kanetsugu’s characterization so he’s very loud, very opinionated, and all about righteousness, which isn’t GI this time but TADASHIKI. At the moment, he’s a bit annoying (but I also felt that way about SW4 Kanetsugu at the beginning, and he’s among my faves now, so...)

Mouri Motonari - he’s also there to be a villain and he does it well. He’s not a nice grandfather, he’s dark and shrewd, and it’s very different from SW4. 

Azai Nagamasa - he’s different, I’m still not sure if in a good or bad way

Matsunaga Hisahide - he’s fun lol (I mean I liked his SW4 version, and I like his SW5′s one too) He’s not really a joke character anymore, and he’s VERY interested in Mitsuhide. I’m glad he stayed as a playable character.

Nouhime - (no one calls her Nouhime lol ETA: Sena does) she is a great character but unfortunately her ‘screen time’ is way too short. Her interactions are mostly limited to Nobunaga, but I guess I just need to trigger more in battle dialogues. I like what they did with her in the IF stories.

Mitsuki - she was such a delightful surprise. She’s written well, and I really like her story, and also her involvement in Nobunaga and Mitsuhide’s story

Toshiie - he’s pretty much the same as in SW4, he’s Nobunaga’s childhood friend and just follows whatever Nobunaga orders, without questioning it much (the furthest he went was before Hiei-zan, but nothing really came from it anyway). He has bigger role during the early chapters, after Mitsuhide joins Nobunaga, Nobunaga apparently forgets he already had a BFF? idk lol 

Katsuie - he became more handsome, but at the core, he’s pretty much the same Katsuie too. But this time they decided to make Katsuie loyal primarily to Oichi and make him her bodyguard (probably to avoid any potential creepiness considering Oichi’s age this time). Toshiie and Katsuie don’t really have any familial relationship, and Hideyoshi calls him “danna” lol

Oichi - she’s a... child, basically (and I did like the mother-like figure in SW4, especially in SW4-2), but she keeps growing on me. 

Saitou Toshimitsu - he’s extremely loyal to Mitsuhide and he follows him no matter what. They have a nice lord/vassal relationship very different from all lord/vassal relationships that were in SW4, so it’s refreshing

Yamanaka Shikanosuke - he’s a great character, he’s friends with Mitsuhide, and they both swore under the moon to become stronger, so they could protect those who were important to them, and that promise made them move forward. It’s a great friendship, but tragic. (as everything in this stupid game is) Although, I admit that at this time, more than his relationship with Mitsuhide, I’m more interested in his relationship with Mori Motonari and Kobayakawa Takakage.

Hanbei - omg I love this version of Hanbei a LOT. I feel like in SW4 he wasn’t around that much, and when he was I just focused more on Kanbei, but do I love him in SW5. His characterization is basically the same, but he’s also more soft? And more on equal ground with Hideyoshi, whom he calls ‘Hideyoshi’, and while their relationship isn’t THAT different, Hideyoshi’s personality and age makes it different, and I love it. Because of his time with Dosan, he gets a lot of ‘screen time’ this time around, so that’s great too.

Kanbei - Kanbei is... young LOL He appears pretty late in the game, so I didn’t have much time to really focus on him because this time, I focused more on Hanbei. Their senpai-kohai relationship is cute though

Nakamura Kazuuji - he’s... there. He has a nice relationship with Mitsuki, but we also never really see them interact properly or hear about their past (maybe the citadel events?), and he’s very loyal to Hideyoshi, so that’s cool too. Like I said above I like the Hashiba group. 

Sena - Sena is great, different from the other girls in this game, more mature. 

Tadakatsu - he’s like a big loud puppy who follows his master Takechiyo. I didn’t focus on him much tbh I’ve always preferred Ieyasu’s relationship with Hanzou, and that didn’t really change. And this time there was also Sena, so... Tadakatsu was... just there, more like an older brother than a vassal

Hanzou - also great. The age difference this time made some changes with his relationship with Ieyasu, and there’s no ‘shadow to Ieyasu’s light’ symbolism this time, but it is still a nice relationship. 

Sandayu - he’s a character that’s very present and he goes from a nice big brother figure to ********, but I haven’t really made an opinion about him yet. He’s a good character, but I like others more, basically.

Kobayakawa Takakage - hahahahaha he’s very self-centered and at first I was like you’re so annoying, but he also started to grow on me, so we’ll see (I definitely do prefer SW4 though). Although, this Kobayakawa and this Hanbei would work quite well together. I need to replay the Hashiba VS Mouri stages.

Saika Magoichi - he’s a nicer version of his SW4 version with no weird womanizer thing thrown in (yet). Unfortunately he only serves as a villain and you don’t really get to know his story, but he’s a person with integrity

Yasuke - Yasuke only joins at the very end of the game, and he’s very cool. He definitely works better than Ranmaru for what this story is about.

Oda Nobuyuki - he was a nice character. tbh they could have made him fully playable because he was present for two whole chapters but well... 

Okabe - idk you fight against him

Katsuyori - I like that Shingen calls him ‘Jirou’ LOL otherwise it didn’t really matter to me if he had a special design or not (but like I said I’m not interested in Takeda clan) - he’s voiced by the same guy who’s voicing Kobayakawa so when I don’t particularly pay attention I’m like why is Ieyasu fighting Kobayakawa? lol

Kikkawa Motoharu - ??? he’s there. he’s the muscles to Kobayakawa’s brain, I guess

Mouri Terumoto - he’s young, he feels the burden, but he doesn’t have much presence

Dousan - well, Dousan is Dousan

Saitou Yoshitatsu - at one moment he’s laughing like a cartoon villain

Asakura Yoshikage - he’s so good. He has a bigger presence that Nagamasa, and it’s a shame he wasn’t made fully playable. But he also never joined Nobunaga... he’s a really nice lord who cares about his territory and people, and does everything to protect them

Ashikaga Yoshiaki - your usual incompetent shogun, I guess

Mitsubushi Fujihide - I love him! He’s very loyal to the shogunate and Yoshiaki and does everything to protect him. (even though the shogun is the way he is)

aaaand done. Future me, how did your opinions change?

TOP 5 characters: Mitsuhide, Nobunaga, Hanbei, Hideyoshi, Toshimitsu

[yusuke-of-valla]

like rats fleeing a sinking ship, pt. 3

intermission i

A/N: “intermission,” basically just means I couldn’t get a Whumptober prompt in there.

TW: mentions of being shot

<-Previous Next->

AO3

After a bit of arguing, Akira gives his bag to Haru with Morgana inside it, and takes Akechi with him to Crossroads. If given the choice, Akira would have preferred leaving Akechi at Takemi’s apartment to rest, but over the last three days since the notice for the Phantom Thieves’ arrest went out, Akechi has proven that he will refuse to sit still even if it’s for his own health, so he’s coming with Akira.

Akira lets Akechi get a seat on the train and stands up, watching the people on the train mutter amongst themselves. The news bulletin is giving updates about the “dangerous thieves at large.”

“...my aunt had a change of heart before she collapsed...”

“I heard they’ve given mental shutdowns to children too...”

“...put her name on the PhanSite. I hope Shido catches those thieves before something happens to her. She may be a bitch but I don’t want her to die.”

“So quick to turn on their supposed heroes,” Akechi mutters.

Akira hums.

Crossroads is empty when they arrive, save for Ohya and Lala, as usual.

When the door opens, Ohya perks up, her eyes going from Akira, then quickly settling on Akechi. “What’s he doing here?”

“He’s on our side,” Akira says. “Shido doesn’t like him either.”

“Sweet. The enemy of my enemy and all that.”

“I suppose you boys aren’t here for a social visit?” Lala asks, pouring them each a glass of water.

“I’d really like this to be, but we can’t.”

Ohya sits up. “Right. It’s not great.”

“Sources don’t have a lot of info?”

“It’s not that. The ones I can get in touch with are happy to talk about how their search for the Phantom Thieves won’t rest until they’re dealt with and explaining some of their procedures like setting up checkpoints in and out of the city. They’re also teaming up with some tech company to monitor phones and texts.”

“Lovely,” Akechi says, “things we could’ve already deduced. Do you have anything that isn’t coming from propagandists?”

“You can tell a lot from what people don’t say as much as what they do. They’re talking a big game, but only have Sakura-san’s arrest to back it up so it’s safe to say they haven’t gotten anyone else. They’re focused on the major areas, the subway, Central Street. Stuff like that. And they’re being flooded with tips, so even though people are happy to turn you in, they also don’t have time to go over everything.”

“So the mob’s working against them,” Akira says.

“Right,” Ohya winks. Then she gives Akechi a pointed look. “And I still have some inside info. Like apparently Shido’s been fighting with this one government agency for awhile now, blocking funding and access for them. They’re called the “Shadow Ops,” and Shido is putting a lot of effort into getting them out of the way.”

“And how is that helpful to us now?" Goro asks.

“Enemy of my enemy,” Akira suggests.

“Well if we can figure out how to get in touch with them that’ll be fine, but it’s still more trouble than it’s worth.”

“What is your problem?" Akira snaps.

“My problem is we’re wasting time! You’re supposed to be the leader yet you can’t conceive of the bigger picture.”

“Akechi you’ve been shot.”

“Stop pretending you’re holding back for my sake,” Akechi says, rolling his eyes. “We could go into the Metaverse right now and get this healed. You just can’t do anything without your ragtag bunch of misfits around to sing your praises.”

“Then why don’t you go.” Akira asks. “Why haven’t you left? Is it because after we played you like a damn fiddle and you were betrayed by your boss you realized you might not be as strong or as clever as you thought?”

Akechi crosses his arms and glares at Akira. “Fine. You’ve got me. I don’t think I can take Shido on my own. I could use your help. Yours. But the others are superfluous, we don’t need them.”

“The others have saved my life on more than one occasion, and they’ve saved yours before too. One week, and we go in and fight like hell, but since you need me and you kinda owe me for that little ‘attempted murder incident’, we’re doing it on my terms when we’ve found as many members of my team as we can.”

“Does the thought cross your mind that gathering them all in one place might just be putting them in more danger?”

“I have to know they’re safe.”

They stare daggers at each other.

Akechi gives in first, getting up with a huff. “If you have any useful information, Ohya-san then please let me know. Until then I’ll be waiting outside.” He strides out the door, and lets it slam shut behind him.

“I’m sorry about that,” Akira says to Ohya and Lala, who he’s just realized heard that entire conversation.

“No problem. You okay, kid?”

“I’m fine. Any other news?”

“Not really. I can tell you that the police have the big public areas covered, but I doubt you’ll be going to any concerts any time soon.”

“Nah. But seriously thank you, this’ll help us plan our movements.”

“Stop by tomorrow, I’ll see if I have anything new for you.”

“Actually, do you mind if one of my friends does it? She’s closer at the moment.”

“Sure, just tell me what to look for.”

Akira gives Haru’s description, thanks Lala again, then heads out.

“Are we done?” Akechi asks.

“One more stop in Shinjuku.” Akira leads Akechi a few blocks down to Chihaya’s booth.

“Akira! It’s good to see you!” Chihaya says.

“Hey Chihaya. We’re here for a reading.”

“Do you know everyone in this city?” Akechi mutters.

Chihaya lays out the cards in front of them. “Do you need a specific reading?”

“Can you give me a reading that’ll tell me where my friends are?”

“I’ll do my best!” Chihaya says. She flips the cards over one by one, and there’s a familiar sensation like something snapping. Even Akechi seems caught off guard by it. Chihaya looks at the spread and frowns. “Hesitation will be your undoing, but don’t be reckless. And I’m not sure about the nine of swords, something to do with Gemini?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Akira sees the way Akechi’s eyes widen at that, then he quickly cools his expression again.

“That’s all I can see,” Chihaya says.

“Thank you.” Akira says, getting up.

Akechi walks back towards the train station quickly, and Akira trails behind. He pauses at the sight of a familiar blue prison door.

“Hey inmate!” Caroline says. “You wanna go in?”

Akira considers it, but shakes his head. He doesn’t want to see Igor right now. “Hey, Caroline, how much do you know about stuff that’s going on. You obviously know more than I do.”

“Well duh! How’re we supposed to help with your rehabilitation if we’re as clueless as you?”

“Then do you know where my friends are?”

Caroline’s grin fades. “W-we couldn’t tell you that even if we did know!”

“Alright, thanks.”

“What are you waiting for?” Akechi calls.

Akira waves at Caroline, and runs to catch up with Akechi.

~_~_~_~

After parting ways with Akira and Akechi, Haru at least takes a little joy in the familiar weight of Morgana in her bag. When they arrive in Aoyama-Itchome, Haru hangs back in an alleyway as Morgana pops his head out of the bag.

“Alright, wait until there aren’t as many students leaving, then slip around the back way there.” Morgana says, helping Haru slip in the same way Akira had been getting up to the roof to meet her while he’s presumed dead.

Her first stop is her vegetable garden. Despite everything, her babies have been growing pretty well.

“It’s too bad we can’t bring the whole thing,” she says picking the tomatoes and pulling up the carrots.

“We can see about starting a garden at Takemi’s,” Morgana offers. “There’s one windowsill that gets a lot of really nice sunlight, even in the winter. I like to take naps there, but I’m willing to give it up for your vegetables.”

“Aw, thank you Mona-chan,” Haru gives him a pat on the head before bagging up the rest of her vegetables. “You’re up next.”

Haru slips out the back and heads back to the alley, watching the school until Morgana comes out, Kawakami trailing behind him.

“Hey, slow down kitty, I’,- Okumura?” Kawakami stares at Haru taking in her new hair and clothes. “So that is Kurusu’s cat?”

Haru smiles and picks Morgana up, helping him back into the bag. “Yeah, he’s a very smart little guy.”

“So does that mean Kurusu’s alright, at least?”

“Yes. But we still need to find the others.”

“Any way I can help?”

“Do you have Shiho Suzui’s address?”

Kawakami’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, then she seems to understand. “Oh yes, I suppose that makes sense. I should be able to get it. Hold on.”

Kawakami walks back into the school, and ten minutes later comes out with a sheet of paper. One has an address on it, the other has a phone number.

“Here you go. And if you need anything, give that number a call and ask for Becky. I’ll know it’s you and be right over.”

“I can’t ask you to get more involved in this,” Haru says.

Kawakami laughs. “I’m already neck deep in the Phantom Thieves business. You’ve helped me and so many others, and more importantly, you’re my students. It’s my job to make sure you’re all safe.”

Haru holds the sheet of paper to her chest. “Thank you. Your support means more than you know.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

Haru grabs a tourist map from the train station and follows the address Kawakami gave them. The Suzui residence is a nice small house near one of the smaller parks.

“Ready to go Haru?”

“Yep.”

Haru knocks on the door, and a middle aged man opens it. “Hello, who are you?”

“I’m here to return your cat!” Haru says, holding Morgana up to the man’s face.

“We don’t ha-” Morgana leaps out of Haru’s arms and runs into the house.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Haru says.

The man curses. “Stay here,” he says, running after Morgana.

There are more voices, and then…

“Morgana?”

“Lady Ann! So you are here!”

“Ann!” Haru calls, running in the direction of the voices. She finds an open door leading downstairs, and the man from earlier is there, along with Ann, Morgana, and a girl who must be Suzui, who immediately steps in front of Ann protectively.

“Who are you,” Suzui demands.

“Shiho! It’s fine, this is Haru,” Ann says, “she’s part of the team.”

“Haru Okumura?” the man— Suzui’s father, probably— asks.

“Yes, we’re so sorry for the disturbance,�� Haru says.

Mr. Suzui waves her off, and then pinches the bridge of his nose. “It’s fine, I guess. Would you like some tea Okumura-san? You and Ann probably have a lot to catch up on.”

“That’d be great, thanks!” Ann says. Haru nods as well, and Mr. Suzui heads back upstairs. Once he’s gone, Shiho shuts the door and Ann gives Haru a hug. “Good to see you! I thought you booked it for the countryside!”

“A little misdirection on my part. It’s a bit of a story.”

“We have so much to tell you!” Morgana says.

“I’m sure.” Ann says, picking him up.

“So, I’m guessing this is the famous Morgana?” Suzui asks.

Morgana perks up. “Oh? You told her about me?”

“How could I not,” Ann laughs, “I mean you’re kinda important to the whole story.”

“I’m important!”

“Wow, you can really understand him?” Suzui asks, stepping closer.

Haru nods. “Yes. How much has Ann told you?”

“Everything, pretty much,” Ann says. She and Suzui share a look, before Suzui pulls up some bean bag chairs.

“C’mon, sit. I’m sure things must have been crazy for you guys.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” Haru laughs. “But do you want to tell your story first?”

Ann nods.

[raguna-blade]

So carrying on the shared symbol thing with persona games, here’s a fun one that probably needs more time in the oven but hey, can come back later with later revelations

So, here’s one that technically shows up in the first game but doesn’t really become a thing until (I am assuming, i still need to actually play the first few and finish most of them but whatever) Persona 3

Evokers! Also known as guns. Specifically hand guns, but I think that’s the least important detail when one of the big symbols of your game is shooting yourself in the head to summon mythic figures.

So Evokers. In game, and as per the wiki, they are supposed to function by more or less...making you face mortality and the fact that you’re going to die for real.

By simulating shooting yourself in the face. It’s a good thing that the Kirijo group already got their mad science comeuppance because man, that’s kinda...

But hey, the logic and rules at play here do seem to be consistent across the games. To Summon a persona requires, apparently, a huge amount of stress and or trauma to activate properly, and the Evokers are a fast way to do that that isn’t, comparatively anyway, super duper traumatic. It’s free artificial trauma for everyone that is comparatively less permanent.

Which...Well I don’t believe that for a second considering SEES is one big trauma center. I don’t think there is a single person in that group who is trauma free really. Nobody is free of it, even the dog.

I mean maybe the protag, but they come off as super depressed to me.

But for the moment let’s accept that as true. If i’m wrong i’m wrong, but I think i’m right and i want to get to the juicy stuff.

So given evokers function by applying trauma directly to the soul to summon yon persona, I think it’s obvious then what guns are SUPPOSED to represent right?

Trauma. But not just any kind of trauma no. Remember, Evokers are supposed to basically be going Hey Trauma But For A REASON. To Summon a Persona. A persona which is used to protect yourself from something (Shadows technically, but A persona is a mask used to face life’s struggles as the games are so fond of reminding us.)

So, Guns are Trauma Turned Towards Protecting Yourself from...something. My understanding of psych stuff is you know, layman, but basically it’s an active self defense mechanism. Or at least turning that pain on outside hurty things.

So if this holds true as a consistent and shared symbol going forward, we should expect that everyone who uses a gun is both

A: Traumatized in some manner.

2: Actively Defending themselves possibly by literally using that trauma against things.

Which i’m sure is totally a healthy thing to be doing. Has to be. Can’t not be right?

I can see no possible way in which using your trauma like a club against the world can possibly backfire on you.

SO!

Who uses guns in the series going forward.

In Persona 4, We have two for sure, maybe a third. That is Naoto, Adachi, and Maybe Dojima (I assume he HAS a gun, but I don’t think he’s ever shown using it. I’m going to assume for the moment this is true as fits the analysis, cause it fits well enough, but if he actually pulls it out ehh)

Persona 5 has uh...literally all of the phantom thieves. Technically not morganna, but if you think a slingshot isn’t basically a fire arm, well sure technically but also you can absolutely kill someone with a slingshot don’t get it twisted. But yeah, all of the phantom thieves and ESPECIALLY Akechi, since he uses a real one. Well, sans Futaba, but we’ll get there.

And do these individuals demonstrate being both traumatized AND using that as some kind of defense mechanism...?

yeh.

So start with P4. Now compare the other persona users in 3-5, the group in 4 is actually really well adjusted. Like yeah, you have some elements of stress and being an outcast and elements of weird harrowing stuff happening to them sure. I mean if nothing else they’re in the middle of a murder mystery with a serial killer in town, that’s stressful for anyone, let alone the weird supernatural shit on top of it, and then there’s the more mundane stressors.

But...Uh...Largely, they’re handling it pretty well actually. Protag was pretty alright moving to town and seems to get along with people well. Yosuke had the dislike of being in town but he had friends, he wasn’t really hated or anything. Chie is pretty alright, Yukiko is stressed but not exactly freaking out, Kanji has some shame going on however you want to frame that i’m told it reads different for japanese audiences though it’s not mutually exclusive, Teddie DID in fact have an existential crisis but that’s not really the same thing i think, Rise is hella stressed, and then there’s naoto who uh.

Kid’s got some problems. They’re also the only one who uses a gun So Hey First stop.

So depending on how you want to read it, Naoto is either dealing with some trans issues or just aggressive and unending misogyny given their profession. Personally while i can see the naoto is trans reading, the game doesn’t explicitly come out with that as the issue, while it DOES with the misogyny so I’m going with that. If you do think it’s more that than what i’m going with, you can easily sub it in I think since from what i’ve heard on the subject suggests it very much CAN be traumatizing dealing with that in society....And also because it’d still feed back into the misogyny thing so it comes back to that anyway.

Regardless. This is a thorny enough issue really, so i’ll strive to not fuck up but please forgive me if I do cause it’s not intentional.

What do we see with Naoto? They’re a genuinely skilled, talented and experienced detective, and at a really young age. Their skills are undeniable really, and they’ve got acclaim and real accomplishments under their belt.

They are also, apparently, belittled constantly because they’re read as female and that is apparently far far more important than their skill. Because of that they’re belittled, talked down to and dismissed purely because of that.

And Naoto is fucking tired of it. So much so that they do everything in their power to present as male and believe they should straight up just...cut out whatever lady aspects are there and just go full dude.

Which here you get two really radically(?) different readings depending on if you fall on the Naoto is Trans and so fucking tired of the misogyny vs Naoto Is fucking Tired of the misogyny and so damn desperate.

In case A, Naoto genuinely believes they’re a dude, and genuinely believes duding it up will solve their problem....But they’re rejecting that part of themselves actively, and refusing to acknowledge it at all. That’s a problem for him, if only because actively rejecting a part of yourself is by no means a healthy thing, especially when it keeps getting brought up constantly in your line of work (I can only imagine how much this would suck to be dismissed because people think you’re a girl when you’re a guy but also you’re denying that you’re a guy and recognize that even if you were outwardly a guy they would STILL dismiss you as a girl even though you’re not. Just typing that out is...yech.)

In Case B, you have a still tired of the dismissal, but also they think they radically need to change their body and gender just to get anywhere in the world which is egregiously fucked up because you know. She’s good at her job! Why should she HAVE to be a dude to get anything done? It’s fucked up.

But they’re a gunman! So...i mean i guess it’s obvious what the trauma at play here is, it’s gender related regardless of how you slice it and how is it used...? Naoto disguises (or “disguises”) themselves as a guy, actively using the thing that they’re being traumatized by to fight back against the world in some way.

I mean as thorny as the issue is in the reading it, the outcome is at least simple enough under the shared symbols thing.

Ok, but what about Adachi...? Welllllllllllllllllll

Adachi is definitely traumatized I think but it's not in the kind of way that's sharp and specific. I'm cribbing a bit off of [https://youtu.be/8qG8Mqe_1v8] with their description of how Adachi reacts to the Scoobies calling him out.

To summarize and or paraphrase, it's not that there's a specific thing that broke Adachi down. It's that he's trapped in a job he hates, or at least without the possibility of improvement. He's shoved in a backwater town when he's a city boy. He feels ignored, he doesn't like the people around him very much, he's got basically no money, he has no significant other, he has to just keep going and existing day in and day out and it's...

God it's so fucking soul killing.

It's not like his childhood was better apparently, in that it basically was a prelude to adult hood but also unlike then, he didn't have the supposed promise of do well in school and get cool shit that was summarily broken.

So what's a guy who's made to feel worthless, made to feel like a nobody, made to feel utterly disenfranchised, and has actual evidence to support some of this (keep in mind the reason he got reassigned did involve him screwing up somehow, though I don't think it's explained what or how) going to react when given the ability to act out with no consequences, or seemingly?

Well, I imagine that you would see them do some fucked up shit really. We've seen people in real life do things just as bad if not worse, and the exact way he wields his trauma is well...sadly understandable to anyone.

Though another interesting shared thing, which I neglected earlier and MAY share into the Gun Imagery is a sense of isolation. Which...Actually. Actually may track. Evokers are used by well...ritualistically killing yourself, which is for all the harm it throws out to everyone connected to you, is also a very solitary act. And in both cases here, the characters are in a very real way killing their true selves in order to deal with the world (In adachis case by presenting a fake version of himself and in Naoto's case by actively rejecting a part of themselves however you want to spin that one)

This does raise a question of the SEES gang having elements of isolation which off hand I want to say yes that's the case across the board, and only by coming together do they win but I also legitimately cannot recall how it plays out beyond the minimal We're The Only Ones Capable of Dealing With This thing which isn't quite the same thing. The ritualized killing yourself still stands so that's still in play really, and i'll keep an eye on it going forward.

I should probably ALSO keep an eye on the uh...Suicide aspects. Even looking back at Naoto and Adachi they have elements of it, although more figurative than literal. Both very much have a life is over thing related to their careers and where they end up when first introduced, so it's not an unreasonable call though the strict actual read of suicide suicide is...Hmmm...

Well I suppose Adachi's chunk of the world is accessed through the noose room if I recall, so that might not be quite as empty a connection, while Naoto's secret lab thing may not be quite as on the nose it does focus on a destruction of self in some way given the way a lot of those secret labs go about doing things in those shows.

That is, there's generally one of two outcomes. Either the Evil Org creates a mindless/corrupted pawn to use whatever their powers/abilities are for the organization (see every monster of the week) OR they create a hero/renegade warrior that uses those very same powers they were imbued with against them....Which suddenly makes me wonder if the the ambiguity of if Naoto's transness vs woman in male spaces thing is intentional in regards to how to read that section. If so that's actually clever as hell because then either way you want to read it the literal what's going on with their shadow (body modification either to become their true self and the rejection of that or to be able to actually be respected for their work and the implied destruction of self that's going on there) it reads as this is bad so...Kudos.

Anyway, off topic, maybe another day.

All this said, this leads to Dojima who SHOULD have a gun and probably does, but...never uses it that I can recall, not once. Doesn't even show up with a gun if memory serves.

It's not that he's not traumatized. He most definitely does have some shit kicking around what with the dead wife, disconnect from his daughter and all that, but he never really...weaponizes it does he? He never turns it on others, never uses it to isolate, none of that. Which is interesting because as a Cop I think we can safely say he SHOULD have a gun of some flavor right? That does seem to be the vibe, and yet he doesn't freak out. The reason why is heartfully straightforward though.

Nanako. He can't exactly revel in his hurt and lash out at folks with it. Like yes, he's not winning parent of the year at the start of the game by a long shot, but frankly emotionally distant and neglectful after your wife died but still trying (failing but trying, critically, the trying) is not the worst spot to be in, no way. And he takes to reorienting things quite well once he get's the additional stability in his life Yu and (at least in part) Adachi.

Which, really, is what also ended up saving the SEES members. Not Yu, but the fact that they managed to form genuine connections with each other that let them get past the hurt and not be taken up and swallowed by it. It's why Adachi ended up going the way he did because he really DIDN'T forge those connections, and because of the whole everything he couldn't really get out of that loop and fix himself up.

I mean Izanami's game basically threw two whole ass people into the deep end of their problems but this ain't about her right now.

So ok, that's the group from 4 and right now this is feeling pretty consistent.

So let's get to the group that has literally every party member carrying with The Phantom Thieves.

So...again, to bring it back, Guns symbolically here are weaponized trauma right? They're using that to strike back against what's threatening you, often by using it against them.

Now, there are variances with the phantom thieves for sure, and the most relevant and DIRECT one is that all of them, every last one, is an outcast of some flavor from the social norms, and this has screwed with them something fierce. Now it's not as apparent or visible in all cases, but I'll get into specifics as we go down the list, but I want to say this at the top because it fundamentally comes down to Because Of this outcast status, this particular form of trauma, they became the Phantom Thieves, and in doing so struck back against the society that hurt them, with the intent to inspire those like them.

Well not Akechi, but his specific issues at least nominally align I guess.

Anyway. I won't go into as much detail here, but I feel it's worth pointing out that their Phantom Thieves Personas are probably the cleanest way to point out how they go about weaponizing their various more personalized traumas to protect themselves and fight back.

Joker: Accused of a crime he didn't commit, sent to a city away from his family and friends, said to be a violent felon...Like it's not exactly brought up in the game in part because he's a silent protag but Joker absolutely had his life ruined. Like full stop, his world fell apart over night, not because he did something wrong but because he tried to do the right thing. And then Kamoshida happened which basically took boyo from being merely fucked over to losing what little he had left (where what he had left was a friend of a friend of his folks taking him in and shoving him in a drafty attic)

And then from said trauma he created the well...Joker Persona. Someone who emphatically is a criminal, the kind of guy who is actually pretty ominous when you consider the knife,gun and dark outfit combo making him look like some kind of assassin. That he helps people is probably a small miracle really.

But by the same token, it's blatantly clear the persona that he pretends at school is not his true self either. He has to hide himself, make himself look small and innocent and as unthreatening as humanly possible. He's not, by any means but...

Morgana: Imagine you wake up one day and you remember maybe your name, a few random bits of information, and nothing else except that you were (probably) a human and now decidedly are not. That's...Rough man. It's just rough to deal with and it's awful, and then you just keep getting hit with that fact over and over and over again. Mona's pretty straightforward, but it tracks that they would make themselves out to be the cool collected sort that they do (even though they botch it nigh constantly). If you can't remember anything about yourself, make yourself out to be the coolest smartest most talented type right?

Ryuji: He literally had an authority figure not only mock his family situation, he straight up broke his leg, killed his dream of running track, ostracized him from his friends and peers, put more pressure on his mom. He was reduced to a thug and his response to that was, apparently, let me be a (diet) delinquent then. It's not like he did anything bad really but he certainly stopped giving any kind of a shit to the world. His attitude got turned up for sure. This got more emphasized with the Actual Skull persona as a phantom thief, where he's far more intimidating, outright hostile and violent (A bat and a shotgun? yee)

Ann: I mean there's the obvious sexual assault, her friend attempting suicide, etc, but i've seen it pointed out that a good chunk of Ann's problems are also based in the fact that she's white in japan, so basically she straight up has to deal with racism too. It's why she's considered the sexy one for example (girls like her are easy you understand) so it's...well. How the game handles (or doesn't) that aside, the persona she ends up developing first off a very blithe sort of vibe to how the world views her (seen in her confidant arc) before ultimately gravitating to having more active control over her image and consciously choosing how the world will view her instead of them making the choice themselves.

Yusuke: Abusive parents (which is damn near a theme with the phantom thieves. Families being broken or Abusive which is hm) who actively stole his work, and he knew about it. It very clearly messes with his art and his relationship to this thing that he loves, and even after knowing how his adoptive dad was abusing him and other students and making a mockery of art...To which he actively throws himself into Art EVEN HARDER than before, as a dedicated fuck you on the subject. Actually straightforward, which is perhaps weird for Yusuke, but hey they can't all require deeper reading.

Makoto: Makoto's deal is a bit more complicated but boils down to She's tired of having all these expectations pushed onto her and dictating the exact kind of person she should be. Always the good girl, always kind and elegant, soft spoken, I mean she knows aikido and is supposed to be good with it. Which is why she turns that around is basically Lord Humongous, albeit less jacked dude in bondage gear and more Badass Violence Biker. Just let it all out and take no shit from anyone ever. Again straightforward enough.

Futaba: Now...Here's a weird one to say because it's...She doesn't have a gun. I mean we could probably make a fair enough statement, if an absolutely buckwild one, that she does not at this point have a trauma. Or at least, not one that is weaponized. Because well...Her issues were very self focused. She thought her mom killed herself because of her, and that almost made her (futaba) kill herself. That's not a great place to be, but it's not like she ever takes her dead mom issues out on the world. She doesn't even really take her extreme social issues out on the world. If anything she pretty much...Has them and kind of deals with them quietly.

I suppose you could say that her weapon of choice is the computer. It's no gun, obviously, but unlike everyone else up til this point she also doesn't really...hide herself. There's no fake persona (in the not summoned beings of myth and story) that she presents to the world. She's decisively genuine about everything, and pretty much the only difference between her and her Oracle persona is neat goggles yeah? Which makes her an interesting pair with Maruki who we'll get to later as another gun not haver.

Haru: Kind of a complicated one, though also kinda straightforward. She's ostracized from her father and finds the abuse that he's laying down on the people who work for them abhorent, which is bad enough, that kind of realization that your life is built on the suffering of others. There's also the uh...It's not strictly this because arranged marriages are very much business affairs more than romance, but the way it's portrayed definitely reads as her dad selling her which is you know. Not...ideal, though her specific reservations there seemed less the arranged marriage (it's business she get's it) but more the dude was an creep and also again the abuse. The family motto being betray anyone to get ahead (paraphrased to hell and back) also suggests some not so great things really, though her bond with her dad did seem to be genuinely strong, which is why her reaction is tada heroine of justice.

Which, I just realized this and I gotta point it out, actually lines up MARVELOUSLY with Morgana and Zorro. Wealthy Individual who see's the crimes and evil deeds of the world and decides to mask up and fight the crime they cannot contest with their unmasked face, warring against the system that enriched them at presumable cost to themselves because it's the right thing to do? Beautiful. Probably should look into that more. But yeah.

Sumire: I mean...I mean she basically straight up says I think I was second best to my sister in everyway and then I got her killed and her reaction to that was Let Me Be My Sister and well...yeah that's exactly how she dealt with her trauma, albeit with a little bit of magic help. And Perhaps most notably, this is almost the most explicit demonstration of Evoker Gun Antics because She Creates a Persona (“Kasumi”) To Protect Herself (alldattrauma.exe) by using that trauma (dead sister) against the world (Literally everyone else) it's...Actually a really clean example I think?

Akechi: Last but not least of the gun havers, Akechi who uh...Outcast because of family reasons (single mom, Dad's a creep) in a way that just...We don't actually ever get the details I don't think, but the way he reacts to it I think makes it clear that his whole life was basically a string of kick this kid while he's down, keep him outside the system, and of course the persona he ends up creating, both of them, end up being one the charming charismatic prince who seeks justice and a bloodthirsty lunatic, neither of which accurately reflect his true self I don't think. Aspects of it sure, but not completely. If pressed, I would say that the Akechi we see in the Third Semester is probably the closest even though he's probably a dream Akechi, being someone who does have a distinct judgement for what is right and wrong but also, critically, can and will shoot you in the face cackling as his plans come together. Rather like Joker actually, which is appropriate given their mirrored trickster roles, and the general shape of their outcomes (both get their smuggery on when things go to plan)

Anyway, the way he reacts to being forced to live an outcast is as mentioned, let me get back into that system, let me be part of it and all that.

And last but not least

Maruki: Now...He doesn't have a gun. It doesn't quite match up with the symbol thing which I think at this point is established enough that it's probably some kind of thing, but what I find interesting is that...he fits MOST of the criteria right? Definitely has a trauma that shaped how he reacted to the world and yet, it's not weaponized right? It doesn't well...evoke a different persona from him. It's not weaponized to protect him and that seems odd right? He ends up with a Palace right?

Sure. But I want to go back to what i'm proposing the Evokers Represent.

Trauma, A Destruction of the Self (Suicide literal or figurative), Isolation, and weaponizing your trauma to protect against the world...And he only actually tracks to the Trauma part of that. He IS hurt for sure, no question. He is fighting back against the world in his own way for sure, what with Azathoth and his mind whammy, and I would say that the nature of it is directing how he's doing things (no more pain for anyone yeah sure)

But where it falls apart, and actually DOES line up with the guns as metaphor for those things mentioned, is that he doesn't really Isolate. He doesn't present a fake self to protect himself. He doesn't destroy an aspect of himself to protect himself. No, he's extremely upfront that “No this is bullshit, it should change, fuck this noise, I'll do what I can with what I can and oh hey godlike power now I can help everyone”

Which cool, except that apparently in the Stay in Maruki's world ending he kinda fades into the background, which suggests the self destruction but no, not even then really. Like I know I made a bit of meta about him obscuring himself and kinda fading away as a person, but I don't think it's strictly meant to be get rid of yourself so much focus on the message and not the messenger. You can throw your mask away. No more pretending. You don't have to hurt anymore. As the song goes.

And it's worth pointing out that, in comparison to literally everyone else on this list, Maruki is unambiguously a healthier person mentally by a long shot. Shady antics with Sumire aside, He genuinely wants to help people, he want's them to be better the right way ideally but if he had the means to do it of course he'd just hot delete those deeply traumatic and life shattering pains that they couldn't overcome. Then he does get that ability. And Then he does do that.

Anyway, the ramblings on long enough, and I kinda feel i'm drifting, but yeah. Think this is another symbol that tracks (I probably wanna check out Persona Q and Q2, but what I know on those does have it break down a bit but they're also not mainline games so I'm not sure how to square that so....)

[irinanonyme]

Here's a Ryuji and Ryukoto appreciation post! (super long post but it's worth it)

One big problem (that everyone has already noticed, it's nothing new) is that the writers aren't really good at writing a good friendship between Ryuji and the other members of the phantom thieves.

While many say that his place in the group is used as a "comic relief", (which btw doesn't work because we feel bad for him), I also think that they're trying to make a fun friendship. Kinda like when you and your friends call yourselves "hoes" and "stupid bitches" but obviously don't mean it and it's just a joke, an affectionate way to say "I feel comfortable enough with you to say dumb shit".

However in Ryuji's case it doesn't work because not only does it go in only one way (the phantom thieves towards Ryuji but never Ryuji towards them... except maybe for Morgana but they're just quarreling) but also because Ryuji doesn't like it and doesn't take it as a joke.

The biggest example of him being mistreated was when he literally saves everyone's ass only to get beat up afterward while we know very well from his confidant that his father used to beat him and his mom, also his legs got broken by Kamoshida. The saddest thing is that he's not even trying to be dramatic about it.

He's just like "uh... yeah. My dad used to beat me up and my mom but whatever, I'm past that" while we get hours and hours of Futaba's palace showing us that "oh no her mom is dead those adults suck". No offense in any way to Futaba btw, I like her and there's nothing wrong with her arc but I just find that sad how while we got a whole big ass backstory for her troubles Ryuji's abuse gets downplayed the whole game and made fun of.

O-kaaaaay let's move on to the main point: Ryukoto.

This is something that seemed really obvious to me and I'm surprised that there's not many people talking about it. This ship has SO much potential if done right. (Emphasis on DONE RIGHT.)

I know it's super cliche because Makoto is supposed to be the typical "super intelligent girl with a badass side" and Ryuji the "lovable and reckless idiot" so this type of ship is overdone everywhere. Movies, games, TV series, manga, books, etc. I know.

But did any of you realize that both of them have many similarities?

For example, their troubles getting "downplayed". Like I said earlier Ryuji was abused by his dad but we never hear any more than that and in Makoto's case there's something similar happening. We know that her mom died when she was really young and then her dad but she never makes a big deal out of it just like Ryuji. I guess they didn't feel the need to add anything to that narrative because we already have many characters in persona who don't have/lost their parents (Futaba, Yusuke, Akechi, Haru, etc.) However there's something else happening, it's about Sae.

Remember that one scene where Sae just randomly started yelling at Makoto and telling her that she's useless, that she should "aknowledge their situation" and that she "eats away at her life". If it happend once what makes you think that it doesn't happen regularly? Afterward Sae realizes that she effed up, apologizes and says that from now on she'll eat outside which makes me think that this is not the first time this kind of thing happens. Makoto's reaction also comfirms it at the beginning when she wants to bring up their dad but knows clearly what can happen when she does.

Sae is obviously having a lot of stress due to the fact that she's now suddenly the "adult of the house" and she has to bring enough money home for both of them not to mention that Makoto has yet to get into a college (which can be really pricey). So it's understandable that Sae feels on edge and knows that she shouldn't say things like that. But even if she doesn't mean it she's still her sister and her words hurt. I'm hesitating on calling this a borderline verbal abuse situation because we don't have enough evidence for that (and also because many love Sae and I'll get my ass fried if I say anything bad about her, no worries though. I do think that she's an interesting character.)

So let's continue.

Then the whole time Makoto is teary eyed and silent which once. Again. Makes me think that this is absolutely not the first time this happens. Afterward we see Makoto's desperate attempts at trying to be useful to the phantom thieves and make a place for herself where there isn't. Both Ryuji and Makoto don't think highly of themselves, Ryuji thinks that he's a burden to his mother and Makoto to her sister. And so they always throw their lives away/put themsleves in great danger, Makoto when she goes with those strangers in a car to meet Kaneshiro and Ryuji when he stops a taxi by jumping on the road, or the time at Shido's palace when he saves everyone (the scene after that when he gets beat up is still super yikes like wtf do you think you're doing atlus??)

One thing that I always liked about her (that many don't) is that the palace in which she awakens doesn't have "much to do with her" compared to the others. But that's why it's great. Many say it would've been better if the palace was the headmaster's palace instead of "that random mafia guy" however I disagree. The build up to this moment always seems so obvious to me that it surprises me that a lot of people don't see the connection.

The whole build up before her awakening is all the people around her treating her like garbage and using her because she's the goody-two-shoes student council president who apparently only cares about a letter of recommendation and only does all those good things to get praise while we're proven wrong again and again. Does she want a letter of recommendation? Of course. It would be easier to get into a good college and help her sister financially since apparently if you have a letter of recommendation some colleges in Japan will take you for free (if I'm not wrong, I might be saying bullcrap so don't quote me on that). But is she mainly doing this for the letter? No. She does it because it's the right thing to do. She could've easily let those students in debt and tell the headmaster who the phantom thieves are but instead she prioritizes the students of her school.

And that's where all of this comes in: Kaneshiro DOES actually have something to do with Makoto because he attacked the students of HER school. If you get involved with the students of Shujin then you also get involved with Makoto.

But anyway, this turned out so long and I'm not even DONE.

Also how Ryuji and Makoto have similar taste. They're both sports-y, (Ryuji probably finds martial arts awesome I mean come on) and Makoto likes mafia movies which makes me think she also likes "cool" things and same for Ryuji. When Makoto awakened Ryuji was immediately on board calling Makoto an ass whooper, a post-apocalyptic raider and whatnot.

Both of them also get suppressed by their surroundings but for different reasons, Ryuji by the teachers and track team members because he's a ""delinquent"" and Makoto by the students and headmaster because she's the student council president.

Those two just understand eachother I'm telling you. Now just imagine them hanging out with eachother and helping eachother.

Makoto teaching Ryuji fancy Aikido moves he can pull out anytime just in case some crazy teacher has the bad idea to break his legs again so he can defend himself. Ryuji teaching her how to "talk casually" and more like people of her age so she can make friends, and also how to use emojis and play video games. Imagine Makoto saying "for real?!" and sending weird emojis to Ryuji then she has to explain what it means the next day. Like

"Hey uh, Makoto... Is Morgana okay?

-Of course, what do you mean?

-I mean, yesterday at 9pm you sent me this: "Morgana is gonna be delighted *knife emoji* *knife emoji* *cat emoji* *cat emoji* (🔪🔪🐱🐱)" what does that even mean?

-I was cooking something for Morgana since we couldn't bring him sushi yesterday. Is something wrong about that?

- Oh thank God... I thought you were about to kill him.

-What?! That's ridiculous. I would never!"

Ryuji also lends her some shonen and seinen manga because he knows she'll definitely like those (especially the mafia ones). Though they keep that a secret from the others because Makoto doesn't want them to know. But this one time they come into her room and Akira/Ren is like "hmm... I've seen the same mangas in Ryuji's room." So they just nervously laugh it off.

Just IMAGINE the studying scene actually helping Ryuji.

It starts off with Ryuji not even being serious about it and half assing it because he thinks "it's useless I'll never be able to get something better than a low passing grade" because his whole life he's been told that he's stupid and even when he put effort and time into it he wasn't able to get much better.

So then Makoto asks him what kind of method he uses to study and Ryuji's just like?? "What do you mean method? Isn't studying just about reading the same thing over and over again until it gets into your head?"

And so Makoto sighs and explains that there are different ways of memorizing and that everyone has different brains thus different methods of studying. For example she says she's more "manual" so she has to write down the important parts of her lessons a couple of time so she'll remember studying as an "activity/event" of her day thus she remembers what she was writing down because it takes concentration to write something and a councious effort to make a synthesis of all the important parts of her textbooks.

So they make a test to find out what type Ryuji is, Makoto will say 20 completely different words and everytime Ryuji will use a different way to memorize them. The first time around he writes them down then turns the paper so he can't see what he wrote.

He realizes that he was more focused on properly writing down everything she says rather than actually memorizing it so it doesn't work. Then they try again but this time all he has to do is listen carefully to her voice, she says that if it helps him he can also try to make a song with those 20 words.

No good, he's not the auditive type either.

Then lastly Makoto tells him to try to picture every word she says inside of his mind, if it's a tiger he'll picture a tiger. If it's cooking he'll picture someone cooking etc.

And so it ends up working best! He's more of the visual type.

Makoto then talks about the different ways he can study thanks to that. For history he can recreate the stories inside of his mind so anytime he needs to he can play the images in his brain and even if it's not 100% accurate it's fine. Imagine the story you're creating in your mind is a manga based on past events! For math where there isn't much "visualizing" to do, Makoto says he can try to "see" the layout of the page in his mind and if he gets through it a couple of times he can even remember which formula is in which spot of the page which makes it easier to remember them.

Makoto keeps giving him tips and Ryuji listens carefully. She ends her speech by saying that he's not stupid and that disliking studying is normal, having bad grades doesn't make an individual dumb. After seeing that Makoto is serious Ryuji also gets in the "study mood". He's happy because for once he's not being made fun of for really trying his best to get good grades. He feels comfortable with Makoto because she's not looking down on him for having troubles with studying and doesn't mock his efforts.

Thus he ends up having good grades (not Makoto level good but like... B+s and occasional As which seems like a dream for Ryuji.)

Everyone is baffled.

The phantom thieves, the teachers, the students.

It ends up looking really suspicious that he has good grades to the point where people think that he somehow managed to cheat or something. But it's fine, Ryuji doesn't care about what they think and he's super happy at the thought of his mom praising him. The whole time though Makoto is like "I knew it, Ryuji can achieve anything when he really tries." From this point onwards they always study together.

After a while Makoto invites him over since her sister is never home anyways and same for Ryuji. Also the daily lessons they have at school make their way into their conversations thus they pay more attention in class so they can talk about it afterward in their study sessions.

Since Makoto is a third year Ryuji asks her about the things he didn't understand and this helps Makoto to re-check her basics from past years since she tends to forget them and Ryuji also gets interested in third year material then starts getting ahead of his classmates.

This one time he was asked to solve a calculus equation/problem but he wasn't paying attention and he's like... wait... didn't I see this type of thing in Makoto's textbooks? He accidently uses the 3rd year formula instead having no idea that they didn't learn it yet and the teacher is like... "That's... correct? Isn't this third year material though?" And oblivious Ryuji thinks to himself "ah shit, am I gonna get scolded for not paying attention?"

But it's all fine, the teacher was just surprised that Ryuji knew how to use that method and everyone starts thinking that Ryuji is actually secretly super smart and all this time he was failing his tests on purpose to piss the teachers off. From that point onwards he doesn't seem as scary to the others anymore and he gets teased by his classmates sometimes, even the teachers. "So Sakamoto-kun is actually smart huh? Who would've thought."

After a while people start approaching him to ask for help with their homework and with his cheery personality he always explains everything in a super easy way to understand, many start coming to him. Even students from other classrooms then suddenly the "delinquent Sakamoto-kun" isn't scary at all anymore. Poor boy gets teased everyday, especially when they see him talking to Makoto.

"Hey dude! The blond hair doesn't suit you anymore, dye it back to black Sakamoto!!"

"So the student council president is your girlfriend? Makes sense, people who are alike get along right?"

"Aww and here I thought that I had a chance with you... Well, if you're just friends then maybe we could meet this weekend? Just the two of us."

Even Makoto finds teasing him entertaining. She does the typical *wink wink nudge nudge* whenever a girl says she's interested in him. Little does she know that he has someone in his mind already...

[akechicrimes]

I'm a brand new goroboy and have questions if you don't mind answering any of them 1. Was everything that Akechi said about the PTs being unjust a part of his detective act or did he really believe that changing hearts was bad prior to the engine room? 2. When did he first suspect the PTs? Did he figure them out immediately at the TV station or did he just become interested in Joker cuz he's gay and figured it out afterwards lol. Basically who sussed who out first? (1/2)

hello welcome!!!!!! we are happy to have u!!!!!!!! 

unfortunately we dont have concrete answers to a lot of these, but i will do my best!!!! these are some really excellent questions so i want to do them justice. and by do them justice, i mean theyre under a cut because it got really long lmfao.

thanks for the ask–this was really fun to write, instead of doing literally any of the work that i was supposed to.

1. Was everything that Akechi said about the PTs being unjust a part of his detective act or did he really believe that changing hearts was bad prior to the engine room?

SHORT ANSWER: we don’t know.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: we can’t say for sure but there’s strong evidence that he was probably telling the truth, actually.

VERY LONG ANSWER: there’s strong evidence he both is and isn’t telling the truth in the TV studio scene, but with the qualifiers that (1) he never necessarily says theyre unjust, he says they’re dangerous. (2) he probably thinks the phantom thieves change hearts in the same way that he makes people go psychotic. (3) his sense of justice is basically entirely based on righting wrongs that have been committed against individuals, not what the law says. (also, when i say “individuals,” i mean himself.)

to the extent that he’s lying–he does say that they’re operating outside the law, and that they have unknown and apparently very effective power that cannot be stopped by traditional law enforcement. traditional justice says that if you operate outside the law, that makes you automatically bad. akechi is playing the part of someone who’s lawful good, so when he says, “they’re dangerous and operating outside the law,” he has to say, “that makes them unjust.”

to the extent that he’s telling the truth, that’s basically everything else he says. i do think those viewpoints are his own for a lot of reasons.

when he talks about the changes of heart, he makes it sound like it’s a thing that could just happen to anyone–even people who’ve done no wrong. when akira voices support for the PT, akechi argues back against akira to say “If [Ryuji’s] heart suddenly changed, wouldn’t you think it was the work of the Phantom Thieves?” like it could just happen to any random joe schmoe. he’s acting like someone could just one day change their entire attitude–possibly for the worse–resulting in terror amongst the population.

we have to keep in mind that at this point in time, akechi has no idea that you can steal treasure to change a person’s heart. he doesn’t even know treasure is a thing, let alone that you have to send a calling card to make it manifest. morgana is the person who knew all that stuff, and akechi definitely didnt have access to morgana when he started his hitman career.

so with the way that he’s talking about the changes of heart, i dont think he assumes that changes of heart always change the person for the better. he has no idea that it’s literally removing a person’s distorted desires. i’m like NINETY-FIVE PERCENT SURE that he thinks changes of heart operate in the same way that his psychotic abilities work: you cast a persona spell, and a person goes apeshit.

from his point of view, that’s kind of what’s happening. when akechi casts call of chaos, a person starts behaving in a way they never would under ordinary circumstances in the real world. the changes of heart really look exactly the same way to an outsider’s POV. and to akechi’s understanding, call of chaos can be cast on even good people. from the phantom thieves’ POV, only people who’re mega-dicks can have their hearts changed in the first place, because the requisite to have a palace is a certain level of distortion. (futaba, of course, proving that you don’t have to be a mega-dick to have a distortion, but the TV studio scene happens before futaba.)

akechi’s argument is that leaving that sort of power in just anyone’s hands is dangerous. because that’s a LOT of power for one person to have. akechi would know, considering that he’s in the same position. he’s wary of the fact that there’s no guarantee that that person will use it for good.

that, of course, brings us to the question of “well, what does akechi think ‘using power for good’ is in the first place?” does he think that the phantom thieves are using their powers for good? does he think he’s using his powers for good?

when asked why he seeks justice, akechi says: “Because of sickening human beings… Yes, my contempt for such people drives my sense of justice. It isn’t some grand reason like society’s sake or some lofty ideal. It’s simply an absurd grudge… and extremely personal.” 

the traditional, lawful-good way of thinking about justice is that if you operate outside the law, you’re automatically bad. but akechi’s sense of justice seems to be driven primarily from the hurts he’s suffered, the grudges he still bears, and his conviction that wrongs personally done against individuals should be righted. it’s an end-goal oriented sense of justice.

if wrong-doers are punished and the grudges are appeased, then justice is delivered. how that happens does not necessarily constitute justice. my best guess at this time is that he’d qualify a lot as “the ends justify the means,” since his concept of justice is end-goal oriented. 

of course, i think akechi definitely shows throughout the game that he knows that how you achieve those ends is… not irrelevant. i think his black mask outfit (and a bunch of other things he says) implies that he feels like he is a “villain” of sorts. he demonstrates feeling a type of way about killing okumura. he definitely knows that his actions are morally wrong under particular lenses. take a look at this section:

Akechi: Who cares? My targets were all doing the same damn thing in this eat or be eaten world. [referencing that all his victims were dicks who kind of deserved to get glocked]

Akechi: How is that any different from the Phantom Thieves?

Ann: We’re not murderers!

Akechi: (now looking kind of pissed) So what?! [launches into speil about how it’ll all be worth it when he exacts revenge on Shido]

obviously he knows that murder is morally indefensible. but i think he’s justified it to himself as either not so bad because he killed primarily corrupt people, and/or that it’d be worth it if he achieves revenge on shido. he’s doing some kind of weird karma cosmic-scale balancing of “how much can i get away with and still be able to call it justifiable and justice,” and it looks like his answer is “quite a fucking lot.”

ironically, this makes his views on justice fairly practical. rather than idealistically committed to some platonic edition of justice, he’s more of a “what do i need to do to get the goals i want achieved? what needs to happen to make sure that asshole abusers get what’s coming to them? what needs to happen to make sure that i get emotional closure?” the biggest issue with that is the danger of a Pyrrhic victory–the moment where the means so go far that the ends no longer justify them.

all of this is to say: when akechi is talking about the phantom thieves as potentially unjust, i dont think he has a problem with their methods. “methods” are like a knife–it’s about how you use it, and for what.

i think he knows that changing hearts, and turning people psychotic, is morally skeevy if your sense of justice is very puritanical, but his sense of justice isn’t puritanical. i think he’s wary of what they might be using their methods for. again: his big argument in the studio scene isnt necessarily that theyre unjust, only that they’re dangerous.

seriously, though–changing hearts is potentially a recipe for societal collapse if used the wrong way. imagine if the PT were more self-centered and they went the light yagami route with their new supernatural powers, maintaining peace and order through authoritarian fear. that is, actually, the entire premise of the P5 Vanilla Bad End, in which the PT enforce peace through relentlessly changing hearts and making people too terrified to keep committing crime. 

since his views on justice seem to be defined by what the end goal is, he’d have to know what those goals are before understanding if they’re “just” or “unjust”–which is probably why he keeps hounding akira for akira’s viewpoints on justice, tbh. the phantom thieves are only unjust if their end goal is unjust, not necessarily because of their methods. (see answer to question 2 for related/continued discussion.)

2. When did he first suspect the PTs? Did he figure them out immediately at the TV station or did he just become interested in Joker cuz he’s gay and figured it out afterwards lol. Basically who sussed who out first?

SHORT ANSWER: i pretty sure atlus expects us to believe that he figured it from even before the TV showing–he figured it out when he overheard ryuji saying “It’s not easy being phantom thieves” when they were in the hallway. it’s the same time and place where akechi did his famous pancake fuck-up.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: the idea that akechi was just super horny for the guy who gave him shit on live TV and then realized that akira was a phantom thief later as a neat bonus is fuckign SENDING me.

VERY LONG ANSWER: because of the scene with ryuji, i’m pretty sure he knew that akira was a phantom thief, and also i’m half-convinced that he somehow got the TV host to specifically choose akira during the “ask the audience” portion of the show. it’s really too much of a coincidence. 

because of that, i think the other implication of the scene is that he wanted to see what akira was made of when he invited akira for a debate on live television, and was pleasantly surprised when akira had something very interesting to say on the topic of grey morality and achieving justice outside the law.

what’s interesting about that scene is that akechi becomes interested in akira regardless of what akira says about the phantom thieves. akira’s options are “They’re justice itself,” “They’re necessary,” and “They do more than the cops”–so it’s not like akira ever says that he dislikes the phantom thieves, but the level of support ranges and two of these imply a justification/reasoning for it. and then akechi fucking argues back on live television like this is some kind of debate, instead of a daytime talk show meant to distract bored housewives. 

like. akechi gets INTO it. justice is his THING. and here’s akira, who seems to be not only a metaverse user operating outside the law like akechi himself, but also has some pretty grey morality thoughts on what justice is and could be, also like akechi himself.

taking it as a given that he knows for a fact that akira is a phantom thief from the get-go, from even before the TV scene ever even happened, then akechi probably keeps hounding him because akechi’s interested in hearing akira’s reasons. he’s not fishing for evidence, since he already knows. this is very speculative, now, but my best guess is that he keeps hounding akira ever after this scene because he wants to compare notes, one vigilante to another, to hear how akira rationalizes his vigilante work as a type of justice. very possibly, he’s seeking reassurance to himself that his own actions are justifiable. (he certainly seems that way in P5R, especially when he wonders about if a “justice nobody wants” is really a true justice at all, or just someone being self-centered.)

so re: “did akechi figure him out or was he just gay,” the answer is. yes. akechi did figure him out, and also akira made him so intellectually horny on live television that he hounded the man down in public for follow-up dates. 

what a king.

3. Does Akechi have a Velvet Room? Does he experience rank ups with Joker and the game over stuff too? 

SHORT ANSWER: we don’t know. no, seriously, we have no idea.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: i’ve seen compelling takes on him having his own velvet room, and i think it’s thematically very fascinating if akechi is quite literally akira’s counterpart in terms of cosmic chess pieces, but i would be surprised if he did. but again, seriously, since there’s no confirmation on the matter, i say akechi’s potential velvet room is fair game.

VERY LONG ANSWER: lore-wise, i’m betting no. akechi was yaldabaoth’s piece, while akira was philemon’s (if i’m remembering my lore correctly). philemon provides the velvet room to aid the people he chooses–yaldabaoth has no such deal. the only reason why yaldo was in the velvet room in the first place was because he wanted to fuck over philemon’s chosen trickster.

it’s the same logic for why someone like adachi wouldn’t have a velvet room: while souji/yu, namatame, and adachi were all given the power to go into the tv world by izanami, only souji/yu was selected by philemon to save the world from ruin, and was accordingly given the resources and aid to do so.

secondary bonus: the psychotic ability/call of chaos just removes a person’s bonds in their heart, which makes them behave as if they were crazy. it’s the exact opposite of joker’s ability to create bonds. yaldabaoth’s one gift to his chosen chess piece was to essentially undo the very social links that make akira strong. so again, i’d be shocked if akechi experiences things like ranking up, or any sort of velvet room/persona fusing mechanic.

personally i think the loki/robin hood divide just happened because he awoke to a persona twice. awakening to your persona just happens at moments of rebellion and strong resolve, and canonically even other persona-users “awaken” (sorta) twice when you max their social link. i’m betting that he just had two moments of resolve: one in which he wanted to be a hero of justice, and one in which he decided he was going to tear shido to the ground no matter how far into villainy he had to go.

but as always, it’s not like there’s a hard consensus on the matter. 

4. How did he kill the shadows of people who don’t have a palace? Does *everyone* have a shadow in mementos?

SHORT ANSWER: he probably kills them in mementos, and also i think we’re expected to believe that literally everyone has a shadow in mementos.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: i’m almost certain that the mementos depths section of the game confirms that basically everyone’s shadows are in there somewhere, even if they’re just your average joe with no significant distortions. the palace ruler for that section is “the public,” and also we do see the shadows of palace rulers who’ve had their hearts changed in the mementos depths. so even if you’ve had your heart changed and are supposedly a perfectly good human being now, this evidently doesnt disqualify you for having a shadow in mementos.

VERY LONG ANSWER: morgana says that mementos is the collective distortion of everyone in the area, but not a lot more concretely than that. morgana also says that reality is fairly plastic and that reality is somewhat determined by how we perceive the world, so i think that we’re expected to believe that everyone has, to some degree, some level of distortion.

i could say that jungian theory, which is the theory that the persona series is based off of, says that everyone without exception has a shadow. but this seems a little bit of a doylist explanation. instead i’ll point to persona 3, in which people without shadows literally become comatose and apathetic husks of themselves. this is because having a shadow is actually a fairly important part of a person’s psyche, and not having one doesnt make you a good and perfect person, it makes you a nonfunctional vegetable incapable of cognitive thought.

so yeah, i’m pretty sure EVERYONE is in mementos. with the exception of the phantom thieves, because… i think we’re expected to believe that their personas are in some ways their shadows? but also their personas are like, real-life kinning mythological/fictional characters so hard that you bind them to your soul? frankly i’ve been confused about how shadows work ever since persona 5 had people’s eyes turn yellow when they go through their awakenings, since perosna 4 used to use that as a sign that the person was a shadow, so… maybe i have no idea what the fuck im talking about. LMFAO.

[magliettagialla]

RyuAnn headcanons:

Important: Of course these are all nothing more than mere personal opinions of mine! Please don't read this if you don't like the ship. Thank you ♡

At the beginning of P5 Ryuji and Ann used to refer at each other with their surnames, even after having been apparently really close in middle school. Why so? We see how Ryuji would rather push people away to protect them, many times in the game (i.e. when Kamoshida is about to kill him and Joker during the latter's first day at Shujin; when Ann is trying to get involved with their plan against Kamoshida), saying rude things or even screaming angrly at them. What if he started to distance her after his reputation was ruined? He knows how Ann's been struggling with bullying all her life and probably didn't want her to get labled "the problem student's friend", so what if, after Kamoshida broke Ryuji's leg, she tried to visit him at the hospital but he said something very rude to her so they stopped talking and started to refer at each other with their surnames?

I had a hunch, more than one time while playing this game, that Ann has a huge crush on Ryuji. She openly flirts with him (i.e. inviting him on a date; seeking attentions from him and caring about his opinion of her, trying to improve it by looking sexier; out of the blue asking him who his type is; not to mention the way she panics when he is apparently dead; plus another thing I noticed in Scramble...) but he often doesn't go along with that or even asks her to stop. I believe he likes her too though: he compliments her looks even when she's not around, he looked desperate to know who Ann's type is as well and, most importantly, he has been shown to be really overprotective of her (i.e. he gets extremely angry about Kamoshida's cognition of her and, when they fail to save the real Ann when she gets kidnapped, he shouts her name in desperation; he gets mad at all the guys who try to take advantage of her or try to harass her; and yet another thing from Scramble). What if he just doesn't feel "enough" for Ann? He doesn't have a high opinion of himself and he's seen by everyone as nothing more than a delinquent and a problem student so maybe he knows Ann can have better than him and wants her to have it. He is also terrified about turning up like his father and he surely doesn't want to hurt her. At the same time Ann doesn't speak clearly about her feelings because she feels like he's not interested in her.

Although everyone among the Thieves openly ships them (especially Yusuke <- SPOILERS FOR SCRAMBLE IN THE LINK!) I like to think Ann is a little jealous of Makoto since she's one of the girls Ryuji has shown the most interest in. Ann gives me the vibes of being the jelly type. Like that time Ryuji asked her to introduce him to Mika she replied with "... You dick! Of all the girls you could have been talking about, it just HAD to be Mika! Urghhhh, I'm so pissed!" and in PQ2 we find out Ryuji is a big fan of Rise to which Ann reacts by telling him: "... Hey, Skull. I think you and I need to have a little talk." She got angry even when Ryuji was attracted to the girls in yukata.

When the Thieves have to decide a name for Makoto, Ann comment's Ryuji's behavior with a sad tone: "I bet Skull's definitely the type that'll be under a girl's thumb". She looked genuinely concerned about that. It reminded me of the way Ryuji turns her down: "Eff that... Quit thinkin' you're some sexy character in an anime. It's sad watchin' you like this". I headcanon they get each other so well that they notice in no time each other's weaknesses and wrong behaviors: she notices that Ryuji can get easily manipulated by women, and somebody could take advantage of that, and he notices that Ann sells herself away like nothing because she thinks that's where all her self-worth is. Knowing this, they try to help each other out.

They are Shujin Academy's most notorious pair. Everyone in school thinks they are a couple, everyone but the two of them.

Ryuji is not really fond of the idea of Ann trying to make way in the entertainment industry as either a model or an actress. He knows about all the scandals that sometimes come out, about girls getting sexually harassed or even assaulted and stuff, especially since she's already been a victim of this in the past, but he doesn't say anything because he sees how much she loves it and wants her to be happy with what she does. And this is the reason why he often warns her about getting fat: he doesn't want her to give up her dream of becoming a famous model or actress, just like he had to do with running for a while, because he knows how harsh beauty standards are.

When Ryuji goes through rehab and gets better, finally reaching or even surpassing his "golden times" record and starts competing again on a national level, Ann is just so proud of him she just stops understanding his self-esteem issues. Everytime he says anything bad to himself again she would go: "??? Shut up! You're the man who reached the top with a broken leg, there's nothing you can't do or can't become" and tells that to everyone, even during magazine interviews because she is just SO proud of him.

Ann loves Ryuji's mom and vice versa. After Ryuji and Ann got together, Ryuji's mom literally adopted her ("I always wished I had a daughter" - Ryuji's mom, probably) and Ann, with her parents travelling who-knows-where around the world, leaving her behind for at least 6 months every year, is super happy to spend most of her time cooking with her, go shopping with her, etc. Ryuji often feels left aside.

Ann has PTSD from the time Ryuji almost died at Shido's Palace. Ryuji has the tendency to risk his life for his friends (i.e. jumping in front of a taxi to rescue Makoto; offers to bait Shadows away; risks his life to get that lifeboat; P5R SPOILER: shields Joker and Akechi from berserk Cendrillon alone) so, whenever his "hero instinct" shows up again during battles, Ann tries to stop him in every way she can out of genuine fear of losing him.

SUBSECTION Middle school headcanons:

Very Self-Indulgent Headcanon Warning: They got close because Ryuji would protect her from bullies. Due to her looks she was often called an "alien" by other kids so, one day, Ryuji told them something on the line of "aliens don't have blond hair and blue eyes, that's the look of princesses". Shiho ships them ever since that day, sometimes teasing her calling Ryuji "her knight" and Ann "his princess".

He was super popular in Middle School, receiving letters in his shoelocker and being called "Sprintmaster Sakamoto" (he tells us so in Dancing in Starlight). Ann had a crush on him but she felt like she didn't have any chance with him since he was that popular. She would still, always, come to cheer for him during his races at school. She was a big fan and Shiho has been teasing her for a while about how overjoyed she was when he beat the school's speed record.

They both play games and read manga. I like to think they started together picking them as presents to each other, discussing their favorites and landing/exchanging titles and series to each other.

Ann says in a Mementos dialogue that "Skull's always been into skull designs and stuff". How does she know that since, well, he started wearing shirts at school after bleaching his hair (this is not necessarily canon)? Did they hang out a lot? Ann says Shiho was her only friend before meeting Ren and the others but what if Ryuji was her friend as well in Middle School? Now, tying back with the very first headcanon in this list: it must have been horrible accepting the fact Ryuji suddenly didn't want to be her friend anymore. She must have been so sad and angry at him for leaving her alone like that.

[badlydrawndrawnings]

I feel like I figured Persona 5 Scramble out on a tiny level

And be warn, there will be Royal spoilers, (major and endgame spoilers) under the cut.

Atlus says that Persona 5 Scramble the Phantom Strikers is canon to the original Persona 5 based game. 

We know it takes place after the ending (lol), since Makoto and Haru are in university (they’re probably the closest -unless it’s confirm otherwise if P3 and P4 cast shows up via DLC or not- we’ll get to Persona User as adults).

And Persona Central, thank goodness, has information about a few of the new characters like Sophia (aka, Sophie, which is her codename) who serves a similar role to Jose in Persona 5 Royal and the Shido-Clone Hasegawa Zenkichi, who is a detective chasing after the PT (no doubt for their crimes of the last year and successfully playing the two men tailing them in the ending).

Rewatching the first PV now with more context of him, I personally have doubts if he has access to the Metaverse/Other World. However, it does appears we are having adult villains, via that Shadow of a that pink haired woman (unless she’s some sort of supernatural being akin to Sophia, I’m assuming it’s a Shadow Self of someone we have yet know of). So I’m gonna assume -until it’s confirm otherwise- that Hasegawa has access too.

Now, I have no freaking clue if we should consider Hasegawa a full out villain akin to the Palace Owners just yet. His appearance in the first PV makes him look like the main bad guy, but for all we know, he’s just a harmless as he can be adult antagonist for most of the game with a big beef with the PT.

With all the info lay out, I feel like I figured out Persona 5 Scramble out on a tiny level.

Big Spoiler One: Takuto Maruki is the final boss of Royal’s Third Semester. He’s more of an antagonist bordering the line of anti villain (I refuse to say he’s a villain or even anti villain antagonist), wanting everyone’s wishes to come true so they can avoid heartbreak and pain and have happiness. He is a Persona User who after the defeat of Yabadabadoo by the PT, his Persona Powers are in some ways, hijack by the leftover remains of a God (due to the Pt subconsciously giving him said leftover) and is able to create his dream world and want to make the new reality.

Big Spoiler Two: Takuto’s used his powers on Kasumi Yoshizawa...or rather, Sumire Yoshizawa. The real Kasumi has been dead since pre-Persona 5 Royal, and Sumire out of grief and depression at the lost of her sister, ‘asks’  (it’s...complicated) Takuto to make her become Kasumi, and he did. By the end of Royal, Sumire is back to being Sumire and is like, leaving Tokyo. 

Big Spoiler Three: While the two above apparently need to have their Co-Op/Confidant max out (or up to a certain point with Yoshizawa), Third Semester can only be triggered by Goro Akechi death in his Co-Op/Confidant (I have no idea if the player who doesn’t start it gets the original Automatic, since they are still in-game). So by doing it manually, Joker has the wish to see him again, if you chose to forget him, apparently you are lock out of the Third Semester If you pick the option of seeing him again/his promise, when the canon 12/24 date rolls around, Goro Akechi is actually alive, and takes Joker’s place.

But that’s not the spoiler. The spoiler is that, according to Takuto, Goro was killed after all in Shido’s Palace, and that we are fighting alongside Dream!Goro. Trying to steal Takuto’s heart will result in Goro ‘dying’ again. And doing results in Takuto’s dream world to disappearing, with Royal retcon back to the original based Persona 5 game. However, if you max out Goro’s Co-Op/Confidant, Goro will be seen (granted face block by a window glare) with two men (who faces are also block by the window glare). Only the player sees it though.

[UPDATE/Correction (?): apparently some people say that the choice of Joker seeing him again does not factor into Third Semester; it factors if Goro shows up in the final cut scene with his block out face]

Because of the biggest retcon Atlus could spit into the face of the player, Scramble, while technically a sequel to the based original game, can also a potential sequel to Royal if Atlus plays their cards right and reveal it in-game.

Because of the Kasumi-Sumire spoiler, Scramble can take place in original based game because she doesn’t exist. Or, it’s because she is actually not with them due to gymnastics duties and will be a future DLC/Big Spoiler Player (because Atlus does not want to reveal the Kasumi-Sumire Spoilers just yet without shooting themselves in the foot). This same logic can apply to Takuto (just minus the gymnastics).

But unlike Kasumi-Sumire and Takuto, because of Goro’s MIA fate is in the original based game and Royal, Atlus can easily, without any fear of Royal Spoilers, can pull a Princess Bride for Goro. Atlus can go ‘oh Goro is only mostly dead’, being stuck in some deep coma until March or something, and is held by (and/or force to work with) some people. Like maybe Hasegawa and his people. After all, if the man does have access to the Meatverse/Other World, you got to wonder how he got it in the first place? Clearly, he needs a phone, and it looks like Hasegawa isn’t a Persona User (and I really doubt Atlus wants to introduce another Adult Persona User so soon after Takuto, though I can be proven wrong).

[darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts]

Annual Leave

Modern Au short for Kat @forallyourikemensengokuneeds Warnings: just 1 playful kitsune

Masterlist

---

It was inches deep in snow outside and exactly the kind of weather where you want to just ignore the alarm ringing in the room and bundle yourself right back up into the duvet. That is what you wanted to do. You managed to drag the covers over your head blocking out the light. Who left the curtains open?

The light thump sound of something being put on the bedside table next to you reminded you of the fact you weren’t alone. Crud. Flashes of the evening before returned to you in waves. One of the guys you worked with suggested drinks and you ended up being joined by another group of guys working the same project as you but in a different department. Ach God my head hurts. A faint chuckle reached your ears followed by a weight on your head through the duvet and the mattress sinking.

“Not a morning person then?” That voice… You worked your fingers through the fabric over your face and came eye to eye with one of the new guys you met the night before.

“Does it look like I am?” Your voice was laced with sleep still throat a little dry. He didn’t falter at all just continued to smile.

“I made you some coffee I dare say you’ll need it.” He pointed to the mug next to you before removing his hand from your head and standing up from the bed.

“What no breakfast in bed?” It was a sarcastic retort you knew but something about feeling vulnerable this early in the day made you a bit cranky.

“I would not wish to make the situation more painful my dear.” He chuckled as he watched you emerge from the duvet to grab the steaming cup.

“I don’t follow.” Taking a sip, you closed your eyes and visibly relaxed. “Damn, this stuff is good.”

“I’m glad, it is about all I can actually do. I can’t cook. I tried a few years ago and apparently nearly poisoned half my team.” He shrugged his shoulders pulling a sheepish face. It was endearing even if it didn’t strike you as a face, he would usually show to someone.

“Well, then I suppose I should say thank you.” You said as you smiled into your next mouthful of coffee.

“What for?” He tilted his head and the light from the window caught in his white hair. It looked so soft. The thought of what it must feel like under your fingertips caused you to avert your gaze from him for a minute, so you could maintain control of your overactive imagination.

“Well for the coffee and having the good sense not to cook.” Vision clearing now you noticed you not only were in an unfamiliar room but the view from the window didn’t match any you knew to be from your house. “This is going to be a fairly obvious question but, I’m not at my house, am I?”

“No, my dear you aren’t. Sometime around the second group of guys leaving the bar you started to sway on your feet and I took you outside to call a cab.” He had taken a position by the door leaning on the wall. How exactly do you do something too mundane and look so good doing it?

“Right. So how?” Gears were turning in your head. Coffee could only wake you up so far. At some point, you had to ask your questions and have the blanks filled in to get you fully up to speed.

“I couldn’t get you to tell me or the cab driver your address so I brought you back here.” He didn’t look like he was lying. Hell, you knew he wasn’t. It had been a bad day in a long line of bad days at work. The whole reason why you agreed to drinks was because you wanted to get hammered and spend the weekend in bed trying to forget about it all.

“This is your house? Oh my God, I’m so sorry I… we…” Your eye widened slightly and you stammered over something you didn’t think you would have to worry about since college. Usually, if you planned to have a fling it was a lot more organised and you probably weren’t so hammered you had blanked out the whole experience.

“Forget about it, please. I was not about to abandon you in your condition it was my choice to bring you back here so just forget about it. As for the rest of what you were about to ask no, we didn’t. It might be some men’s style to take advantage but it isn’t mine. I slept on the couch.” Your heart was pounding hard up until he told you the arrangements from last night. He didn’t seem offended that you asked if anything he probably predicted it was coming and looked rather nonplussed about the whole thing. I wonder if he does this a lot.

“Ok, sorry… Thanks.” Your eyes go back to your mug.

“I have to say I’m rather impressed. You managed to go drink for drink against some of the guys in my team and remain more or less standing by the end of the night.” His voice was teasing. You knew it before you looked back at him. His golden eyes sparkled as he revelled in your discomfort. Ok, this I can believe is more you.

“you are making it rather difficult to ‘forget’ about anything now.” Your tone is chilled and you give him your best “you’re on an official warning” look.

“Ha-ha, yes I suppose I am. I’m sorry Princess I couldn’t help myself.” He laughed and pushed his hands into his pockets on his jeans.

“Ass.” You snorted as you drained the last of your cup.

“I’ve been called worse.” The guy laughed and took the mug from you before leaving to go downstairs.

A few hours later you had grabbed a shower and managed to get yourself together enough to make your way back to your place. A cab was waiting for you curbside and your knight in shining denim held the door for you as you got in.

“Thanks again.” You said from the backseat.

“The pleasure was all mine.” He leaned in through the driver’s window and handed over some cash before throwing you a wink.

“I can pay for my own cab you know?” For the life of you, you couldn’t seem to get a grip on what the guy was trying to do.

“I know and so can I.” He chuckled “See you are work.” He gave a half wave half sault as the car moved away. You couldn’t help but giggle at him. See you at work indeed.  

---

The next few days blurred. They weren’t as bad as they had been, they were just endless mind numbingly boring days of repetitive data logging. You were thankful for the small office you were given. At least in here it was quiet and removed from the other areas where someone always seemed to put on the radio to “allow the festive spirit to fill the room.” The only festive spirit you were looking forward to was that bottle of brandy you had sitting at home.

You knew it made you sound like a grinch but the holidays were always just another day. It was a day for the kids and the families. Sure, you went home during them when you were on leave from work. You were surrounded by your siblings, their partners and the kids running around with whatever colourful bit of plastic they had just been given as a gift.

It was nice but it always came with the inevitable conversations of “So when are you going to settle down and start a family of your own then? Tick tock you’re not getting any younger.” You didn’t need them to tell you that. But you also hadn’t exactly been looking for someone either. Work was work and you loved it even if it came with a butt load of paperwork and a ton of people pushing that glass ceiling down on your head. How were you supposed to find someone willing to accept that?

-Knock, Knock -

You looked up from your screen to see the guy from a couple nights ago. Clean pressed shirt with sleeves rolled up past his elbows. His tie was nowhere to be seen now, long forgotten after the meetings for the day were over with. His suit trousers had small creases on them from where he had been hunched over his desk for so long. In his hands were two polystyrene cups.

“Coffee?” He didn’t exactly wait for your reply and casually walked over to hand you one of them.

“Thank you. How did you find me?” You held the cup in both hands the temperature of it makes you realise how cold your hands had become from sitting there typing all day.

“I can find anything when I put my mind to it, my dear. However, I must confess locating an attractive workaholic female who has not been seen outside of her office all day is hardly a challenge.” He smiled as he watched you. To some people that might have been unnerving but you found it strangely comforting.

“You wish me to be more of a challenge?” you enquired trying to gauge what he was planning.

“Only if you wish to play my dear.” The corners of his mouth tweaked up into a smile. “I’ll warn you now, I don’t lose.”

“Then maybe I should warn you too. I don’t either.” You matched his smile meeting the challenge in his eyes with one of your own. Neither of you was willing to break the contact locked in your impromptu staring contest. A phone began to ring cutting through the silence.

“Well someone has appalling timing.” He mutters as he pulls out his cell from his pocket and answers it. “Akechi.” He mouthed his apologies before leaving the room with his phone pressed to his ear. The loss of his presence hit you harder than you were expecting.

This strange man who you knew nothing about other than he was part of another department working on the same project. Who couldn’t cook but made some first-class coffee. This guy came out of nowhere and was suddenly under your skin. You didn’t believe so much in luck or fate. Destiny was a bit far-fetched as well. Still, you could not deny the fact that you might possibly be falling for him. He was interesting and what’s more, he held your interest.

You had had relationships before now where the men in your life had failed to capture your attention. So why this one?

---

Annual leave for the holidays was finally here and everyone had made their way home hours before you decided you could actually leave yourself. You hated to leave things unfinished, it annoyed you. Your brother had sent you a text earlier, that you missed because you were so fixated on getting your work done.

“Hey just checking to see if you had changed your mind or not.”

“Guessing not. Ok well, I guess we’ll all see you in the New Year at some point then. Dad says don’t work too hard.”

You were exhausted. Scratch that you were beyond exhausted. Your original plan to drive home for the holidays went out the window when news came about the system file logs for the test being lost. All of the data had to be located again and input again. There was even the horrible task you had of going into the lab and trying to locate the slides from the tests so you could take some new data and reach the new targets. There was no way you were driving that distance to see your family. It wasn’t the first time you had missed a holiday and you knew it wouldn’t be the last.

Your car was frozen over when you got to it in the car park. The bitter wind was howling through the trees and you shuddered at the thought of taking your hands out of your pockets to scrape the windscreen. Gloves or no gloves it always made your hands go numb. Sighing you pulled out your key and pushed it into the lock. Nothing. You couldn’t turn it and nothing clicked to open. Great. Apparently, you were the proud owner of a frozen ice cube. You started to dig around in your pocket looking for your cell when another car pulled up alongside.

“Need a lift?” The familiar voice had you smiling before you even turned around.

“Either you have excellent timing or I might think you planned this.” You joked as you climbed into the passenger side of his car.

“Let’s go with the timing thing. As brilliant as I am, I do not think I am capable of creating such appallingly bad weather.” He chuckled as he put the heating up in the car and began to drive.

“I don’t know apparently you are capable of turning standard foodstuff into weapons of gastric destruction.” You poke a little fun at him as you warm your hands over the vent.

“Touché.” He smirks “Clearly the temperature has not affected your ability to create witty retorts.”

“Disappointed?” The feeling was now back in your hands and you sat back in the seat again watching the world go by.

“Oh, my dear you could never disappoint me.” His words caught you a little off guard. Whatever you had thought of saying you blanked on it and silence reigned supreme for the rest of the journey home.

---

He pulled up by your house as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Since when did you know where I live?” You queried.

“Since I heard you tell the cab driver that day at my house what your address was.” He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“And do you always remember small details like that? It was one time.” You were impressed, it wasn’t often that someone showed that level of retention of detail.

“It is my job to remember details however small they might be.” He turned his golden gaze on you and you felt your heart give a loud thump. How many times has he done that to me? I think I’ve lost count. “But I assure you, my dear, when it comes to you, I forget nothing, no matter how many times it happens.” You gulp. You tried not to but you couldn’t avoid it. This man had the ability to render you speechless, breathless and fry every circuit in your brain all with a few words.

“Would you like to come in for a drink?” You nearly whisper the question.

“If that is what you desire.”

---

Thank god for modern day timers on thermostats. Your house was a decent ambient temperature by the time you both entered it.

“Have a seat. What would you like? Coffee? Tea? Something stronger?” You played the part of hostess as you took off your outerwear.

You have no idea when it happened or even how. You hadn’t heard him move let alone see him. Yet there he was in front of you and so close you could feel his breath on your skin. He reached up with his fine long fingers and brushed your hair behind your ear letting them trail delicately along your skin tracing a line in an invisible pattern on your neck.

“You really are a cruel woman, aren’t you?” His words added to the sudden shock you felt.

“What?”

“Invite a man in. Knowing he is driving to then offer him something stronger than tea or coffee. You know that imbibing anything such as alcohol would hinder my leaving.” His low seductive tone had you trembling as he got even closer to you. His hand slid from your neck to the wall behind you. “Tell me, my dear. Is this what you want?”

You didn’t trust your voice. You weren’t even certain at this point you had one. You nodded slowly and he smirked as he hooked his free hand under your chin and drew you in for a kiss.

“Good Girl”

The evening turned into a morning followed by another evening until it had been a week later and time to return to work. Of all the holidays you had spent since becoming an adult and moving away from your parents. You couldn’t remember one where you had felt so happy and content.

---

[phantom-thieves-imagines]

Jealousy- Chapter2 (Goro Akechi x reader)

Wooh here’s the part 2 thats overdue, watch me decide to make this 20 chapters long lmafo

ooh ooh warning- the events in chapter 2 and onwards are cannon to the actual game meaning Akechi is...

chapter 1 can be thought of as part of this, or as a separate fic where Akechi hasn’t done...things...

spoilers ahead

-mod goro 

Makoto took a deep breath, pulling herself fully upright as she brought the microphone to her mouth, “Well then, we will now begin today’s panel. Our guest of honor is Goro Akechi.”

A bright spotlight reigned down on the detective in center stage, who gestured  with his gloved hand, smiling. “I feel kind of bad considering how many people have gathered....I’m sure you all would’ve been happier to have a singer or mascot appear, wouldn’t you say?”

 The crowd laughed, as Makoto continued, with more confidence. “We’d appreciate it if you could tell us about your experiences with the notorious Phantom Thieves.” She copied Akechi, turning up charm to the max and lathering on her words like honey, “It’d be wonderful if you could let us hear more about your actual investigative process.”

Akechi leaned on the podium in front of him, not one to lose he put on his own sweet-tooth smile. “I’m not used to being the one interrogated...so please go easy on me.”

Once again, the crowd laughed, Akechi had a way with people you knew that for sure.

“...How much do you think he knows.” Ann whispered to your group, up in the rafters. Below sitting in the crowd you could see the floofy hair of Haru and the blazing head of orange hair that was Futaba, sitting in her same frog-crouched position. The two had managed to grab two seats in the packed auditorium- Goro Akechi had literally sold out the gym. Ann had managed to snag a key to the rafters from a male who worked for the drama club, the 5 of you creeping quietly as to not attract any attention- it was highly likely the rafters were off-limits, that didn’t stop you all from positioning yourself with a good view of the stage. she nearly throttled Ryuji when he tripped on the stairs, causing the smack of metal against skin to vibrate throughout the hall. Luckily, with how loud the gym was at the time and how focused everyone was looking on stage, waiting for Akechi to show, you all managed to sneak up without being spotted. 

“Either he has an idea who the true culprit is, or...he has uncovered the identities of the Phantom Thieves.” Yusuke mumbled, 

Ryuji leaned on the railing, beside Ann. Apparently they didn’t care about being seen anymore. “C’mon Makoto....! You gotta get it outta him....!”

Yes, Makoto was under a lot of pressure. She was tasked with prying information about the phantom thieves out of Akechi, despite that fact that you were a friend of Akechi, you wouldn’t want to go head to head with him in a situation like this- this was his stage. 

“As much as you’re allowed to say, would you tell us how far along your investigation is on them?” Makoto continued.

“Getting right to the point, I see.” Akechi commented. 

You made a slight ‘tsk’ sound. Akechi was cocky, and pointed out every single thing Makoto did and why, just in a different, roundabout way.

You had a bad feeling, thing’s weren’t going to end well.

“Well, if it’s as much as I’m allowed to say, then everything on TV and the internet is all of it. We don’t have any leads yet, and the methods behind their crimes are still unclear.”

“I see...Even with this country’s power, arresting them is proving to be difficult....is that the case?” Makoto asked.

Akechi turned it over in his mind. “I wouldn’t phrase it that way...but well, something like that.”

“Something like that my ass.” you growled. The police had nothing, you knew that for a fact. If, and only if, they had something- it would have to be from Akechi. 

For that one, one reason, because of his one comment.

“Thank you for answering that question.” Makoto hummed, voice sweet like a child’s. Alright, at the very least you all know that the police can’t arrest the thieves at the moment, without fabricating piles of evidence and having fake witnesses. “...By the way, it seems you’ve denied a correlation between the Phantom Thieves and the murders...Why the sudden change? Until now, haven’t you upheld your stance that the Phantom thieves are dangerous? How are you so positive that they haven’t committed murder?”

Akechi breaks into his TV- oriented smile. “Aren’t you a little too comfortable interrogating people? Why, it’s as if you’re a prosecutor.” An attempt to derail the conversation and also stabbing at the fact that she’s acting like her obviously corrupted-sister. A disguised low blow.

The crowd laughed, god they must be tired of it by now. 

Makoto flushed slightly, embarrassed and a twinge of bitterness making her brow crease in the slightest as she closed her eyes. “Ah, excuse me. This is something I’ve personally been interested in so I couldn’t help it...” She opened her eyes, focusing on Goro. “But won’t you tell us...?”

‘Atta girl Makoto, keep up the heat.

“What reason is there that you’d claim their innocence when you previously stated they were unjust?”

Akechi turned to the audience for the first time since the interview started. “Every person whose heart they changed have truly been criminals, including Okumura. Why then, was he the only one who needed to be killed?”

“Why is that?” Makoto smiled, throwing the question back at him. That was the best way to do it, never put in your statement, just keep asking the same things out of the person to avoid them trying to interrogate you.

It was like watching two lions fight. Makoto and Goro both looking for the other to slip up and to gain the upper-hand.

Akechi looked forlorn, “I must admit...I couldn’t deduce a reason. That’s why I believe that case should be through of as if a different party is responsible.”

He leaned back off of the podium, the same natural look plastered on his face, “And if- This is all hypothetical, mind you, If the Phantom Thieves are the ones I know of, I can’t possible imagine they would kill anyone.”

A cry of shock rang throughout the auditorium, you felt a stone drop in your stomach. Down below you saw Futaba’s hair whip towards Akechi. Beside you, Yusuke tightened the grip on his arm, gnawing on his lip.

Makoto, startled, stuttered back into character. “Y-your comment just now...Does this mean the police have already identified who they are?”

“Dammit, fuck!” you felt like punching the wall. If this conversation continued...

Akechi frowned, but you knew he was really smiling, he realized it too, Makoto had fallen into his trap. “Oh, no. The police haven’t gotten that far yet.”

He paused, to let the audience laugh, before turning to look directly at those standing in the rafters.

“But I have my own conclusions about the true identities of the Phantom Thieves.”

Your blood ran cold. 

“He’s gotta be bluffin’!” Ryuji barked, slamming his hands on the railing.

Ann smacked his arm, “Pipe down!”

Haru and Futaba were huddled together, mumbling. Makoto had a dear-in-headlights look, her brain frantically trying to say something that could steer the conversation off course.

Akechi smiled, barely hiding pride. The lion was defeating the lioness. “You’re not going to ask me who they are...?” He asked oh-so-innocently. At this point he was just daring her to try him. ‘Do it, weren’t you so confident in getting information out of me? Where did that honey-like smile go?’

“He’s just playing her like a fiddle.” you mumbled to yourself. It was hard to believe this was the same guy who less than 24 hours ago, was talking in the courtyard with you about being friends, how he wanted to be friends, how he wasn’t used to being friends with people.

You wonder how much of it was fake, could be fake.

Ann gripped the railing so hard it made a noise.

“...it may have repercussions on the investigation. Are you sure you can share that with us?” Makoto was not even trying to hide her glare. She was frustrated. 

Akechi raised his chin, “It’s only my personal opinion, so announcing that here wouldn’t pose a problem.”

“However....” He continued. 

While looking at Makoto, his eyes momentarily drifted back again towards the rafters, he locked eyes with you for a moment and you help your breath until he looked away. 

“...There is a possibility that everyone present will hear the truth before the police or media...

“The truth...?” Ann whispered, fear lacing her words.

Makoto huffed,“That’s quite the confidence you have....if you’re so certain...then very well....”

She took a breath, steeling herself. Once she asks this, there was the high probability Goro would call her out right then and there, in front of the crowd. If that happened she needed to be ready, to act, to deal with the situation in any means necessary. 

Her last words, before, now that you look back on it, was the last moment before you would pretend that everything was okay, that you could continue attempting cracking the ice-tough detective without any fears of something sinister hiding underneath Goro Akechi’s mask.

She opened her mouth. 

“I’d like to ask you then: Who do you think the Phantom Thieves are, Akechi-san?”

Akechi-san, the lioness is wounded is trying her best to soften the blow she know will kill her.

“That, idiot!” Ryuji hissed.

“No, Ryuji,” You murmured, tugging his arm. “She had no choice, you have to know that.”

He met your eyes, you and Ryuji had been through a lot- being your first friend since you got to Shujin, besides Ann, and eventually Akira. He respected you, unlike Ann who he always bickered with, he always tried his best to please you. Taking you out to eat, friendly talks between classes- nothing there was ever implied to be more than friends, and you both were okay with that.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes with his palm, he’s just scared, and you know that, understand that.

“No...there’s no way he could have any evidence.” Yusuke mumbled in terror.

You’re not so sure you believe that now.

“They’re people you all know quite well.” Akechi started. “The identity of the Phantom Thieves are-”

Almost comically and to the relief of your group, Akechi’s phone rang.

He pulled it out, “Oh, it’s mine. I apologize for the interruption, but I can’t turn off my phone due to my job....would you mind if I step away for about...ten minutes or so...?”

“I’m terribly sorry, everyone, but we’ll be taking a break.” Makoto said, trying to keep the relief out of her voice. “We’ll resume the panel in ten minutes.”

Akechi pocketed his phone, grinning. “Please don’t troll me online for this interuption, ok?” 

For some reason, you felt the strong urge to go online and do just that.

Akechi bowed, and then walked over to Makoto. The two of them exchanged a few words. Akechi moved behind the girl, whispering something in her ear.

For some reason, you felt the hairs on your arm stand up, your teeth clench tighter.

Makoto gave Akechi a side-eye glare, biting her lip before the two disappeared behind the curtain.

“H-hey, it’s Makoto.” Ann mumbled, motioning to the IM app on her phone. You checked on your own as well,

Makoto, 2:47pm: P.E faculty office. Now. Everyone.

“Dammit!” Ryuji mumbled, rubbing his head. “It’s that damn Akechi!”

“What should we do...?” Ann murmured in a trance-like state. 

Akira, who hadn’t said anything since the panel started, finally spoke up. “I think, we should be on guard.”

Yusuke shivered, the lanky boy had probably burned all of his calories out of fear by now. 

Below you, Haru and Futaba were squeezing past people in the rows to get out of the gym. 

“We only have 10 minutes, we should hurry.” Akira said. Yusuke, Ann and Ryuji all hurried down the stairs, legs shaking. You stayed behind to wait for Akira, who was still standing, looking at the stage, the gleam from his glasses hid most of his face.

“Kurusu...?” You called out. He snapped his head towards you. “We should go.”

“Right.” He nodded, following you down the stairs, pushing the double doors and out into the blinding light of the sun.

---

Akechi slapped down three photos on the table. From the cries of Haru and Ryuji, you knew the plan of ‘trying not to look suspicious while Akechi interrogates us’ flew out the window with any other logical thoughts.

“Please, let’s not feign ignorance.” Akechi purred. Goddammit did his voice find a way into your blood, you shivered again. “All of you can go to that other world too, yes?”

Akira stepped up, as the leader, picking up his broken team in his own hands. “What do you mean, ‘us too’?”

Akechi smiled, “It’s not just all of you. I am aware of that world too...” 

Hidden behind a stack of boxes, you could see the tuffs of Morgana’s fur. He was sleeping on the grass while the panel was going on (Ryuji almost stepped on his tail while rushing out of the gym) and you all informed him of what had happened on the way to the office. 

“What? He was about to reveal the identities of the phantom thieves?” Morgana’s tiny voice cried, running to keep up with everyone power-walking.

“Yeah, now we’re in deep shit.” Ryuji cursed, trying to calm his nerves. 

“Well, what’s done is done, all we can do is try to either play dumb or work out a deal.” Akira mumbled.

Morgana’s tail twitched, left to right and back again.

“I found out about that world a month ago.” Aekchi stated, pulling his phone to show the currant-red eye of the Navigation app. “This had been installed onto my phone without my knowledge.”

You winced, Akira hummed, Morgana’s tail flicked up, once.

You sincerely, sincerely, sincerely hoped you were wrong, but even so, you can’t hide the fact that the evidence is looking right at you in the face. 

No one else, except for 3 out of the group seem to have realized it.

Ryuji rolled his arm, grabbing his shoulder, as if he was going to fight. “We’ve been listenin’ to you blab on for a while now, but cut the delusional-”

Akechi shut him down promptly, “All of you are acting as Phantom Thieves in the Metaverse. I can say so with conviction because I have the same power as you.”

Everyone was quiet and tense for a moment, no one no knowing or wanting to say anything.

“That’s right.” Akira spoke up, his hands taken out of his pockets. “And what now?”

“So, you don’t deny it then.” Akechi hummed. “To be honest, I’ve been curious about you since the time of the Madarame case.”

“We didn’t kill anyone!” Haru gave a shrill cry. Of course she’d feel the need to say that, it was her own father that was killed after all.

“I believe that, as well.” Akechi confirmed. He seemed like he was telling the truth, at least. 

Makoto cradled her hands nervously, “How can you be so sure?” 

And Akechi was willing to answer that as well.“Because I saw another- the real culprit.”

Instantly, everyone in the group recoiled. Shock and fear turned into anger, this was the person that was framing the Phantom Thieves, intentionally or not, for murder. 

Akechi hushed any outcries. “I couldn’t identify his face...he had a mask on, after all.”

“He?” You questioned, speaking Akechi for the first time since the day before. “So you know this person is a male.

Akechi winced, it was so small that it only looked as if his eye was twitching but it was there nonetheless, then collecting himself, answered. “Yes, from his figure I could assume it was male.”

He cradled his head, face scrunched as the retold his story. “Actually, when I took these photos, I entered that world too. That’s when I saw someone else moving about, besides all of you....He shot at me the moment he noticed me.”

Yusuke folded his arms, shifting his position. “That’s who killed president Okumura?”

Akechi removed his hand, nodding. “Most likely. At the very least, I was almost killed by him...’I can’t die here, I need to determine the truth.’ When those thoughts overcame me, I awakened to that power- a most fortunate accident.”

And all this happened, a month ago.

“This guy has a persona too...?” you heard Morgana mumble from his position behind the boxes.

Akechi jolted, his eyebrows raised up past the edges of his fringe. “This cat...” 

Morgana’s tail shot up in astonishment.

Goro shook his head. “I-i swear it just.....talked....!”

Ann spoke up, words flowing out of her in a rushed breath. “Morgana. Our teammate who taught us about the Metaverse.”

Akechi recoiled, before slowly returning, even closer to inspect Morgana. It slowly became more and more difficult to stop yourself from laughing- Goro always acted polished, calm and collected at all times. But when something threw him off guard he’d always try really really hard to keep his cool, though he wasn’t very good at it, to your humor. 

“Really...? This is unbelievable...” He murmured. “But it is true that you know things that I don’t...”

He cleared his throat, collecting himself to be the TV celebrity he was. “Say, Morgana. Were you also the one who instructed them on how to change people’s hearts?”

Morgana saw no need to stay in hiding he jumped up on the boxes. “We go in the Metaverse- we call them palaces- to steal the core of their desires: their treasure, those who’s treasure are stolen have a change of heart.

Word jumble that you’ve heard what is it...one two-  this is this 6th time now. You extended your arm out to Morgana, his ears flicked forward as he carefully climbed up your arm and came to a rest on your shoulder.

You scratched under Morgana’s chin, causing him to purr. You (Besides Haru, Futaba and maybe Ann if she tried) could pet Morgana like this, like he was an actual cat. Akechi’s eyes met yours for the third time that day, he looked away quickly.

 “...Ah, hahaha...” He chuckled, rubbing his face dejectedly . “There’s certainly no way anyone could figure out such an MO...”

“Anyways!”Ryuji couldn’t take how slow the conversation was moving at, his foot tapping against the tile with vigor.“Back to what you were talkin’ about! Are we in this mess ‘cause of that guy?!”

Akechi turned to Joker, your leader, speaking to the group.

You only half-focused on that , you kept running the calculations in your head, making sure what you were assuming was right. Morgana noticed, hissing(literally). 

“Hey, are you listening, what he said was important.”

“Yeah.” You mumbled back, ruffling his fur. He yelped, along with Ryuji and Ann both freaking out over blackmail and the threat with being arrested. 

Akira sighed, removing his glasses to rub the grime from the lenses. “You’re asking a lot.”

Akechi frowned in return. “I see...I don’t think it’s a bad deal though....well.” he smiled, one that seemed to spring naturally from his mouth. “Considering this is you we're talking about. I believe you’ll come to a favorable reply.

The smile was short lived, it was quickly replaced with 100% pure synthetic Akechi smile in a short second. “I’m glad we could talk. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to spend such a meaningful time like this.”

His words were meant to be ones of praise, but to you they just felt like slaps to the face. As if he was implying his time with you had been-

Meaningless.

‘This line of thought meaningless’ you thought.

“We should be getting back.” Akechi pointed out, observing his phone. He spoke to Makoto, brows furrowing in regret. “About that...I’m sorry, would it be acceptable if we ended the panel here...?”

Then he broke into a smile fitting for a cat like Morgana. “The reason why you called for me in the first place was because you wanted Intel,correct?”  He seemed passive-aggressive towards Makoto and from the look he gave him back, you assumed this would be another ongoing thing, like Ryuji and Morgana, great. 

Another tally for Akechi, he’s winning against the Phantom Thieves 1000-1.

“Ill deal with it somehow.” She finally said, seeming relieved to just be done with the situation. She held her hands, when you looked down you noticed- they were shaking.

Makoto Nijima was just as scared as everyone else.

Akechi walked past the group,not bothering to formally conclude things, or maybe he just didn’t know how to. 

He stopped to whisper in your ear on the way out, “I look forward to your answer.”

Morgana’s fur bristled, you locked eyes with Akechi, hoping to get some reason or clue from his eyes, anything that might change your mind-

Nothing, absolutely wiped and blank. 

He left the room.

Ryuji stomped his foot in rage. “Dammit! He had complete control over us!” the fear that seeped into his voice was evident. You tried to reach out for him, to help him but he stormed out of the room, slamming the door before you could get the chance. You made a mental note to go run with him to help burn off his adrenaline later.

No one had the strength to say anything else, with heavy hearts, everyone slowly filed out of the office. 

You, Akira and Morgana remained in the room.

“Hey, they’re going...” Morgana hoped down from your shoulder, voice somber. The cat sighed, shaking his head.

Akira looked at you, you both knew what each-other was thinking. It was pity. Pity because your so called friend, the one you tried to be friends with, the one Akira knew you had feelings for was-

Morgana’s tail swished, sadly. 

“You realized it too, then.” 

[kayoi1234]

I was bored and going through my wips. Found some quality lines that might make no sense without context.

So you sit on the train, and wait for the stop at Yogen-Jaya to arrive. There’s only one question on your mind.

Who were you?

-A Persona 5 thing that was based around the idea of “What would happen if you started a NG+ file with corrupted data?”. The end result, for some fucking reason, is a BOTW-inspired retelling of Persona 5, complete with memory loss.

All right guys, we’ll start from the beginning.

My name in Ren Amamiya, I come from 2018 Japan, and I did get bitten by a radioactive spider.

And, for the past year or so, I have been the one, and only Spider-Man.

(Now, I know what you’re all probably thinking. “But Ren, what about Peter Parker? Isn’t he Spider-Man?” Which I respond with “Multiverse Theory.” That probably doesn’t explain anything but oh well.)

So I saved the city, busted some drug rings, saved the city again, blah, blah, blah you know how it goes.

Then, when I was walking home from cram school, not as Spider-Man but as measly little Ren Amamiya who cried about seahorse documentaries, I notice something.

-Another Persona 5 thing, this time inspired because I watched Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse and I went completely hog wild before running out of steam.

Izuku Midoriya sits in his chair, a pair of mint green headphones on his ears with a microphone in front of him. Behind him, there’s a few posters of several game characters, but some of several heroes as well, the largest being an image of All Might, with the text “I AM HERE” in big block letters.

However, that’s only the camera footage that sits in the corner of the screen, out of the way from the real action happening on the main screen.

The game in question is a round of Overwatch, and Izuku is absolutely carrying his own team. He’s playing the gamer and mech pilot D.va, and currently has the highest objective time and third highest eliminations, right after the team’s Genji and McCree.

In the stream chat, there is an evermoving wall of text, most saying things about the game,

- A BNHA thing about, apparently, making Izuku a streamer. No idea where this even came from. 

“Wow, you’re a worst detective than I thought! And here I thought there might be someone who can match my intellect!” a voice calls out, and eyes turn to the person at the back, who is wearing a brown hat and cape, black hair framing a face that hold closed eyes, an easy smile gracing his face as he holds a half-empty ramune bottle in one hand.

“I mean, it probably wasn’t fair anyway. I am the best detective in Japan, maybe even the world.” The man says, eyes opening just a bit to show intelligent green eyes.

“And, who might you be?” Akechi asks, smiling. Ren looks at the man behind his glasses, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m Rampo Edogawa.” The man introduces himself. Behind him, a man with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail is reading a notebook. “This is Doppo Kunikida, my partner for this case.” Rampo says, gesturing to him.

- A BSD and Persona 5 fusion, where all I wanted to do was have an excuse for Ranpo to meet Akechi and drag him through the mud. Good times. 

She’s looking at him like she’s found someone important.

The boy looks up at the woman on the wall, and asks “Who are you?”

The woman smiles, and says “I’m Atsuko, what’s yours?”

The boy looks at her, and he says “I’m Atsushi Nakajima!”

The woman looks him over, and says “So, Sheikah Kid, want to tell me why you’re outside in the rain?”

Atsushi grins and says “Well…”

- A BSD and LoZ fusion, where Atsushi is part of the Sheikah tribe. I honestly have no idea where this one is going.

The Law of Cycles demands that a cycle of life and death is kept, that despair cannot triumph over hope, that the scales shall not tip. But when half of the universe is killed, the scales begin to drop on one side. Madoka Kaname watches from her plane of existence, and frowns as she watches more and more despair crop up from the ashes, as the Witch of Salvation draws near.

A grinning god, one that controls the Laws of Equivalent Exchange, demands that the price of power be met. The Infinity Stones are not Philosopher Stones after all (Except, perhaps, the Soul Stone, but even then, that is a dubious theory). There is a demand that must be met. The Truth sits at the gate, grinning, for his dues shall be paid.

-Something I wrote after watching Avengers: Infinity War. The document title is literally “spite shall fuel me.”

And so, with the social tact of a squirrel, and the mentality of a toucan, he goes “So wait, which one of you is Markus?”

A dark-skinned fella (why fella, why did he call him fella that weird) in a trench coat blinks and says “I’m Markus.”

Lukas studies his face for a moment, sees a blue eye and a green eye, and, again with the social tact of a squirrel, says “You look like one of those bad ass anime characters that have the different coloured eyes. Bet you’re gonna say ‘It’s time to duel’ or something, and I’ll agree, and I’ll lose, and you’ll say something like ‘You’re a third-rate duellist with a fourth-rate deck.’ Or something like that.”

Markus blinks again and says “No. I wouldn’t.”

Lukas goes “Oh.” And then wisely keeps his mouth shut.

-A OC-centric story for Detroit: Become Human. Looks like it was written on a whim and the OC itself reads like a self-insert. youch. 

[an-obligatory-blog]

I’ve known this for quite some time, but I’m just going to post this now since even now, it’s still a very confusing part of P5.

Regarding to the ending split...

... it has plot holes, but it isn’t as major as I initially thought it was.

It was a complex plan, no doubt, and certainly, there had to have been a better way to explain it (ATLUUUUUS). After all, for a good amount of time, I thought the thing is riddled with nonsense, but after being explained by a certain someone on discord and some more thought, some questions has been answered. Oh, and reading Futaba’s dialogue before you go to sleep-- I don’t see many videos of that on it’s own so I suppose that’s part of the reason why it’s confusing.

These a few plot holes that I thought (or others) existed, but didn’t:

- How Akechi got out of the Metaverse (do you remember how you leave the Metaverse?) - How Akechi contacted Shido (u thought he was was underground/in the metaverse? apparently he wasn’t necessarily) - The Metaverse app being activated without alerting Goro (you can use the app without audio input via the search history function (see: the second time Akira and Ryuji entered Kamoshida’s Palace)) - Goro not getting into his rebel outfit after entering the Metaverse (When asked, you can sell out your teammates and/or you confidants, but NOT Akechi. At that moment, Sae didn’t know that Akechi intends to shoot Akira until Akechi had already left the Metaverse. During the duration of the attempted hit, there was no reason for Sae to see Akechi as a threat, either a hitman or a thief)  - How tf Futaba can get a signal from Akechi’s phone (since it had a GPS) and Akira’s phone (GPS and voice messaging) when both Akechi and Sae were supposedly 8 floors underground (They weren’t necessarily. Sae met Akechi w/ the phone right after leaving an elevator. The voice messaging was pre-programmed into Akira’s phone so that it could work in the Metaverse; Futaba OP, pls nerf) 

What wasn’t explained regardless:

- The mess that is Justice Rank 8 (someone told me that it might be a developer’s joke since Morgana commented how it didn’t make sense nor would it make sense for either Morgana or Akira to , which would be shitty cuz that is literally the definition of lazy writing: “Idk what to put here so let him rank up cuz lul”) - How exactly did Sae convince the police that there was a body in the first place? I get forging the death certificate (which should be enough to fool Shido since his ass isn’t getting out of his office chair), but what about everyone else? That doesn’t sound like a feat that could be done by one person. Maybe the grunts anticipated Akira’s death too quickly and assumed that it happened when Sae reported? Eh, even for P5, that relies way too much on incompetence. How Sae managed to 1) drag Akira out without being caught 2) fool the police in regard of a dead body and 3) get away with it all for so long is the worst plot hole you could pull out of this whole plot segment. - SEE EDIT BELOW

Asterisks (*) are used to mark questionable parts that I realized after what Atlus was really trying to do. 

I found Futaba’s extra dialogue during NicoB’s Let’s Play of Persona 5. It’s around the last 10 min of the episode linked below. Couldn’t find a better video, but this is where I found out, so it’ll work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi6wLyeuqws&list=PL5bkYBlFL9xcNUVU5-EcBxdaVVAZM2zX1&index=62

Look at the moment when Akechi and Sae meet. When Sae showed him the phone, Futaba explained later that she bugged the phone (the one belonging to Akira) similarly like with Akechi’s phone. Through that, she remotely activated the Metaverse app to transport the two into the Metaverse. (remember the search history function that was used for Akira’s and Ryuji’s second visit to Kamoshida’s palace? That’s the function that Futaba remotely activated. She didn’t tamper with the magical app itself.)*

So Sae and Akechi are in and they went in opposite directions. Akechi goes in, kills the cognitive guard and cognitive Akira.** Now, here’s where one of the so-called ‘major plothole’ existed. How did Akechi get out? First, let me ask you this, how do leave the Metaverse in the first place? I thought that you just press the app to leave, but apparently, that’s wrong. You have to physically go back the way you came, and that’s why you always have to return to the Palace’s entrance to leave the Palace. This is what Atlus failed to do-- what leaving the Metaverse actually looks like. We saw Akechi’s pictures of the PT appearing/disappearing out of thin air back at Okumura’s palace, but we didn’t see how it really looks like without the red/black circles washing over the screen every time we do it. Apparently, leaving the Metaverse doesn’t involve pressing the app at all-- just going back the way they came. Remember where Sae showed Akechi the phone? That is where they entered, and hence, where they exit. When Akechi was done with his assassination attempt, he goes down the hall, up the elevator (yeah, the guard couldn’t have seen Sae and Akechi conversing, they were on a different floor), and back to where the app was first activated. Once Akechi crossed that point, that’s when he left the Metaverse.

This is when Akechi calls Shido. You see how he calls Shido right in front of an elevator? Yeah, he probably wasn’t 8 floors underground at that point. 

Now, I’m assume you know the general story with Sae, but I’m going to clear this up anyways. Sae received the pre-programmed messages from Akira’s phone, and she followed their instructions to go back to the interrogation room. Once again, she crossed the same point where the app was first activated, thus causing her to exit the Metaverse. She goes down the elevator and towards the room. The GPS installed in Akechi’s phone helped Futaba to time Sae’s entrance because it would be awkward if Sae encountered Akechi mid-assassination. (Futaba would know when Akechi is out of the Metaverse and out of the police station; nothing contradictory of getting a signal by then)

*The problem with this is... even if you use the search history function, the phone still plays it’s voice protocols like normal (”...Beginning navigation” You know the drill.). I don’t recall this ever being mentioned by any of the characters, but you can easily explain this away with “the phone was on silent”. **The cognitions should’ve disappeared similarly like Shadows when they were killed. You can pull any number of BS by using “well maybe Sae’s cognition is different because hurr durr”, but it was never mentioned by the PT to even consider the rate in which cognition disintegrate into nothing nor was there any measures to accommodate for that. This instance is plot convenience at it’s finest.

Now for the sake of clarification, this doesn’t mean that Atlus is suddenly flawless in regards of how they handled this aspect of the story. Aside from what I’ve already stated above, this stuff could’ve been handled better. The search history function was only mentioned offhandedly in the the very, very beginning of Kamoshida’s Palace (before even Shiho attempted suicide) by Ryuji so there is almost no way anyone would remember without looking back. The anime cutscene where Ryuji was smirking “we got ‘em” when he heard about the supposed suicide of the PT leader made no sense. (How would he know that the plan even succeeded???? I know he was being like, “well I toOOOTALLY knew that we were going to succeed” but goddamn, but that sounds like he was acting tough more than anything. That kind of blind confidence shouldn’t be present, even for a character like Ryuji.)

You know what would really help? Seeing a few frames of the inside of the elevator as it goes up and down. Despite hanging out in the background, I barely even noticed it before someone else pointed it out.

A good part of the fandom was impressed by the plan and yes, I do think it’s a clever trick for Atlus to pull on us. However, the more complicated the plan is, the more effort one should put in explaining said plan because, you know, it would be harder for the player to understand. I don’t mean treating the audience like idiots and I understand the concern of dragging the explanation scene out, but man, Atlus was totally off their game when it came to hinting/foreshadowing. Instead of doing off-hand comments about seemingly arbitrary, but relevant aspects of the plan (ex. Futaba’s bug on Akira’s phone, the search history function, etc.) that you can probably catch by your second or third run of the game, Atlus favored getting hung up on whether or not they wanted the traitor to be obvious or not because they seemed to be pretty damn bipolar regarding to that.

I do give them credit for making some information optional (discoverable by talking to Futaba). It makes the scene less draggy and allows people who don’t give two shits to skip the parts they don’t care. I don’t watch many let’s players on the same game, so I can’t conclude if many people actually went out of their way to talk to Futaba and process her words.

And one last note, I don’t think Persona 5 is a bad games by any standard, but I do believe that the writing is the weakest aspect of the game. Style and gameplay seems more polished than the actual story aspects.

I hope this helped for any of you guys out there. Feel free to let me know if you.see any mistakes/seek clarification. It’s 9:30 PM for me, so I hope I didn’t mess up too badly explaining this.

EDIT: It came to me that if the method of leaving the Metaverse is truly just by going back where they came, it raises issues in Shido’s Palace, where the place they started was on the front deck, which, as you guys know, was sinking into the depths by the end. Basically, there’s no winning with P5 plotholes-- no matter how you look at it, there’s an issue.

[monasatlantis]

Persona 5 Royal Final Review

After 108 hours of gameplay I finally finished Persona 5 Royal. (P5R from now on.) And it is time for my game-review. Usually, if I replay a game, I don’t review it a second time. But I think the Royal version deserves its own review.

Of course, spoiler for P5R are under the cut!

I don’t want to drag that review too long, but there are certain things that need to be said and that is what I am going to do.

First of all, my overall feeling for the game was, that I enjoyed playing it a lot more then the original P5. The things that were changed or added be it plotwise or in the battle- and gamesystem seemed small in the beginning but overall made for a better game experience and made the game more enjoyable and fun.

Of course, knowing almost all of the characters and the overall plot helped a lot to find yourself right at home relatively fast.

I really have to give a huge praise for the prologue to Atlus once more. Because damn do they know what they are doing. The one from the original was already perfect. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of Prologues in JRPGs and also my fair share of the “This is were you are, now work your butt off to actually reach this point in the game” - ones. But none has ever be as good as the one from Persona 5. So here I was, starting P5R expecting to see the same great prologue again and got slightly panicked the moment I realized something was different. When Violet showed up, I feared it would ruin the amazingness of the original Start of the game by giving to much focus on her. Instead, the scene made the start even better. Because... at this point, we know nothing more about her then that she is the new female character from P5R and she just swoops in, saves Joker and reminds him of a promise we know nothing about. Casually mentioning she is not a part of Jokers Team too, so that at the end of this scene your like: “Okay... who are you, what kind of promise did you have with MY Joker without my consent and why are you a persona user but not part of my freaking team?” Which adds questions to the beginning of a game we actually already know. So in case you’ve watched that Prologue from the original P5 so often, that you are tired of watching Joker jump out of that window like the showoff he is, now you have a new scene that makes the beginning of the game interesting all over again. Really good job Atlus!

Now... let me tell you about my greatest fear about P5R. I know you all don’t want to hear that, but this game was literally Atlus milking the Akechi and the Akira/Ren x Akechi Fans. They knew they could sell a game twice for the same price, with relatively small changes that could have fitted into a DLC, if they just give all those fans more Akechi and more Akechi x Akira/Ren interactions. And for those who dislike Akechi and/or the ship they added Kasumi/Sumire as an alternative, being a new, interesting female character made to fit Joker in the weirdest possible way. So my greatest fear was, that P5R would be full of fanservice and nothing else but that. I feared that the Akira x Akechi ship was pushed to the absolut max (with Atlus still refusing to allow Joker to date him or any guy despite that...) and also pushing Kasumi/Sumire as the female love interest for the other side of the fandom.

Did Atlus do that? Lets say it that way... my fear was for nothing, but it was still a slight bit of fanservice for Akechi and pushing for Sumi (Kasumi/Sumire) there. It was kept in moderation tho (honestly, I’ve seen worse. Much worse. Seriously. Play Cold Steel, then you get what I mean XD) and as every game would use a trump-card like that as a selling-point at least a bit. So I do not blame Atlus for doing so as well, since, once again, it was kept in moderation.

So... about Akechi, Sumi and Maruki and what they add to the game and how they got included in the game and how it works for the game... I have to say, I think they did a really great job with adding those 3 character to the game. (Or in Akechis case, making him a real confidant...) Most of the time, when characters are added in a later version, you often can feel that those characters didn’t originally belong there and they feel like someone cut out a piece of a cake and tried to make the cake look whole again by adding a piece of a different cake, that has the same size, but still doesn’t really fit. Atlus didn’t cut the cake, they put cream on top of it XD

Lets start with talking about the good and bad of making Akechi an actual confidant. But before that, let me complain about the time-limits set for those 3 confidants. They were stressing me out! And with those time-limits, you are basically forced to focus in maxing those 3 first, so that you had barely time for your own teammate. And you have to max them, for the true ending and the third semester. So... I would have wished that wasn’t the case, but I get why it had to be... Now... please tell me I was not the only one facepalming when Akechi gave Joker a headshot and his confidant-level rose in the original game. Because it makes all those “Joker loves Akechi killing him” - jokes a lot less questionable then they should be ^^’ I felt a lot more comfortable playing billiard with Akechi instead - although I have to admit that it felt slightly weird and I was a bit uncomfortable at first. But you get used to it. And I think it also improves one certain part of the story greatly. And that is the part were the game wants to tell you that Joker and Akechi have such a great, strong, special bond. Because in the original game, they hardly ever do anything together, besides those short encounters every now and then. This time, it felt much more real for Akira and Akechi to be close, because they took the time and made the effort to actually spend time with each other and get to know each other. It also gives the player more chances to decide what to do with that traitor. And I guess new player were even more shocked now when Jokers favorite friend suddenly shot him in the head without even hesitating. It really makes the game better in a way. Especially with Akechi suddenly throwing his glove at Joker, telling him he hates him all of the sudden, when you are reaching level 8 of his confidant. It makes everything more round, when it comes to Akechi and his complicated relationship with Joker. There are no “bads” about Akechi becoming a real confidant. It was a good choice and made the game better. So in a way, Atlus wanting to make money by giving fanservice, benefited the game greatly.

Now to Maruki. He seemed to be... relatively unimportant. Honestly, if I didn’t knew I need to max him for the third semester, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Because he is just some random counselor how apparently finds Joker interesting - as many other characters do - so why should I care? Now imagine all those “blind” playing players who didn’t google how to get the third semester and true ending and wondering what they did wrong when they didn’t get it just to find out they had to max out some random confidant guy like Maruki. Those poor souls. So... is that a bad thing? No its not! You are supposed to be shocked and surprised in the third semester when you find out that this sympathetic but relativly boring confidant actually was the guy behind the fake reality. Especially after making it look like it was actually Sumis palace at first. I do have to say tho... he gave me “traitor-vibes” immediately, so I somehow saw it coming. But that is just me being wary of characters in lab coats thanks to certain games... They really made great work with that man tho. Every member of the team had counseling with him (Akechi aside) giving him the knowledge of most of their dreams and wished and problems and also making him look more sympathetic for being so friendly understanding and helpful. Even as the ruler of the fake reality, he actually had “good intentions” at the end, they were still egoistic, but he truly believed he would help people, making it hard to totally hate him and making it also understandable that the other characters didn’t hate him. Even after you want to despise him for what he did to Sumi, she herself said that without it, she might would not have made it, making it hard to hate him for it. The way he was added to the game, felt whole and never gave you the feeling that he didn’t belong there. So once again, good job!

Now... on to Sumi. She has her first encounter with Joker relatively early on in the game and you keep having scenes with her throughout the game, even if you do not do her confidant. Actually, whenever I was a bit sad that Kasumi wasn’t there, she suddenly showed up. Be it at the end of the Hawaii trip of the great scene from the school festival or her running towards Joker in Leblanc after he faked his death. You never have the feeling that she shouldn’t be as close to Joker as she is, because the game makes sure to let them have lots of interactions and encounters with each other, even outside of her confidant-scenes. They did give a hint or to of her true story too. So I wasn’t surprised when the truth came to light in the third semester. Overall I have to say they really overdid it a bit with the drama of her story, but it adds up to why Sumire is the way she is, after you force her to be herself. I was certainly sad I could only have her as my teammate so late in the game tho. Her powers are really great. And it it also a bit depressing if you want to date her (whish the game obviously wants you to do...) and have to wait until almost the end of the game to finally be able to do so. For a month at best no less. all those dates you missed... oh well, dating her is cute at least. I do have one big complain about her character tho. In this totally awkward scene were she was sitting in a Café with Joker and Akechi (or was I the only one feeling awkward sitting there with Boyfriend on the one and Girlfriend on the other side? ^^’) when Akechi - that sneaky bastard - asked her about the Phanthom Thieves she said she doesn’t think its right to count on them, that people should solve their problems themselves and not rely on others so much. Which is right on one hand. I mean, it was great foreshadowing. At some point people really just expected the Phantom Thieves to solve all their problems making way for their great downfall when they couldn’t meet the high expectations. BUT Sumi was the last of all the characters who had the right to say something like that. From the beginning as Kasumi, to the End as Sumire... she always relies on Joker for giving her strength, hope, motivation and a reason to fight and live and get stronger. I doubt she would have managed to overcome her trauma without him. So how did she solve and of her problems herself without always relying on others? I am sorry, but she was not the right person to say that. (But at least, after realizing Akira/Ren was Joker she immediately felt bad about talking not so nice about his team infront of him - although Mr-Sneaky-Bastard set this up on purpose so he should be the one apologizing here...) Anyway. Aside from the scene were the PT fought the god, were she was missing for some reason, she was added very well into the story and made a good addition to the team at the end. She earned her place in the game and made for a nice alternative dating-partner.

Finally... I wanna talk about the damn third semester. Because after all the work and stress we went to to get there... it was a bit of a letdown for me. Tho the start was a shocker with everything that happened, it dragged on and on and on and on and on and on and on. You go into the palace after having absolutly no real freetime between the final boss from the original game and this new final bosses palace. Here in this palace, you lose Kasumi, then you are forced to go out of the palace, just so you can walk around to watch your friend be happy for days with the game making it unnecessarily hard and time-consuming for you by refusing you to use insta-travel for no apparent reason. Then you go back to the palast, save Sumire and are forced to get out of it again. Then you go back in, are forced to go back out again, then you are forced to go to Mementos and go through all the new stupid levels there because otherwise you can’t continue with the palace. Then you go back to the palace AGAIN which seems to never end and has many strong enemy immune to physical attacks because saving SP is a total unnecessary thing in this immensely huge palace. And when you finally almost reached the end of the damn palace you are forced to make a stupid puzzle. URG! Now, you are finally through with the palace, now you have an immense amount of freetime, which still isn’t enough to max many more confidants especially not if you also want to use this last chance to max Sumi. And at this point, it just feels like enough. The game is going on for too long. It has to end. And yet, the final boss, just like this final palace and the third semester goes on and on and on and on and on. Every time you think you have beating him, he rises again and again and again and again. And was that fist-fight with Joker really necessary at the end?

Now that we are officially talking about the third semester... lets also talk about Akechi (again) and also some plotholes. So Akechi is like... having multiple personalities in the last part of the game. One time, he is an absolute bloodthirsty asshole and the next time he is your worried teammate. I mean... how did we go from: “Save your girlfriend yourself, Joker, because if I handle this, she will end up dead.” to Akechi stopping Sumi from running towards Dr.Maruki to keep her save from falling debris? I guess in the end being part of Jokers team finally got to him XD So... Akechis existence in the third semester is a huge problem for the plot. Despite the intentions of the true ending, Akechi is believed to be dead and only lives on because Maruki brought him back so he can have a second chance for a happy live with Joker. That would mean that he was made up by Marukis fake reality to fulfill either Jokers wish or Akechis wish. BUT the moment everyone else of the team realizes they were in a fact reality, that what they had and did wasn’t real, it was gone. Mona becoming a cat again. Futubas mother was gone. The moment both Akira and Akechi knew that Akechi wasn’t  real, he should have vanished, but he didn’t. Now lets say the reason he didn’t vanish, was because he was actually still alive in the real world (maybe in some sort of coma or something, which would explain his memory problems, because then he wasn’t made up by Maruki, but just got pulled out of whatever state he was in in reality...) then it is still a plothole why nobody, not even Maruki himself didn’t wonder why everyone elses true reality came back when they realized the truth but Akechi still stayed there until the fake reality was gone. I think in the end, Atlus didn’t fully think that truth and messed it up a little bit. Also... in Kasumis case. It is said that when people called her “Sumire” she just heard what her changed cognition wanted to hear, which was that people called her Kasumi. BUT if only her cognition was changed, why didn’t she end up in a psychiatry after claiming that her little sister Sumire is dead and that she herself is Kasumi? It doesn’t make any sense, if only her own cognition changed. Once again, not thought through in the end, I think.

Anyway... all in all it was a really good and enjoyable game. I gave it 9 out of 10 points.

[yeonchi]

2019 In Review

This year marked the start (or rather, a continuation) of my transition into society. It kind of sounds weird when I put it that way, but the truth is that I have much to learn about how society works and that despite all my time on the Internet, I’m gonna have to face up to reality sooner or later. I’ve never really created a name for myself outside of my anime posts, English dub rants, or even my work on preserving the Sea Princesses series, but I still hope to continue posting online at times.

Where previous reviews were released on New Year’s Eve, this year’s review will be released a bit earlier for reasons that I’ll elaborate on in this post. Let’s begin after the break.

Sea Princesses

2019 has been a big year for Sea Princesses. During the first half of the year, I worked on transcribing the episodes and writing plot details for the wiki, since not a lot of work was put into them since the other admin, Liggliluff, joined the wiki in 2015 and gave provision for them. In the second half of the year, I renovated the character pages, adding infoboxes and story involvement (highlights for the major characters) to them. I also created pages for the (named) animals that appeared in the series. Since the wiki is pretty much complete at this point with the addition of transcripts and episode plots, any further work on the wiki from me (in regards to the animated series) is up to whether I feel like doing any.

After six months of seeing no further uploads on the Mr Bean and Friends channel, I caved and decided to shell out some money on a premium account to download the Amazon Prime episodes someone had uploaded to a website. Six months after that, I found that someone had downloaded the episodes themselves and uploaded them to KimCartoon. I know this was way after everything I had done, but better late than never, I suppose. The sad thing was that a few weeks after that, someone reached out to me on the Lost Media Archive saying that they had ripped some of the episodes from ABC iView and put a link to their MEGA folder on 4chan /trash/ and not /co/, which led to me not realising it until he told me about it. Regardless, the split English episodes and Spanish Disney Channel raws are still in my cloud drive folder.

While working on the transcripts for the wiki, I also wrote a review of the series. After watching it, I found that there were quite a few disappointments here and there, but the series wasn’t as bad as I had remembered it. Also, from July to October this year, artist Princess Rainbow Channel did some amazing fanart of each character in the series (including background characters) that trumps everything I had seen before and possibly after. Feel free to check it out here along with my reaction and her response.

Public opinion of the series depends on where you are; in Brazil, people are still bringing it up in their childhood memories on Twitter (usually in response to the question “what were some cartoons you remember from when you were young”), while in Australia, you barely get anyone talking about the series and even if you did, quite a few of them would be people trashing it. I’d seen a couple of Americans who had apparently seen the series as well; aside from the Latin American Spanish version, I have no idea which channel the English version was broadcast or where, otherwise I’d have known by now.

So like I said, the wiki is pretty much complete in terms of the TV series. As for the Princesas do Mar books, I am hoping to cover them in the long term when I have the money and capacity to do so. If you want information about them now, then I’m hoping that someone (mostly from Brazil) will be kind enough to provide transcripts and/or snapshots of them. There won’t be anything about the books on the wiki (with the exception of Marcela and the titles of the books) until I get that information, whether it be from a kind volunteer or by myself, so the entire thing’s pretty much on hold until then.

One thing I realised - the author, Fabio Yabu, recently published the first volume of the Combo Rangers graphic novel for free on WEBTOON. No doubt about it, Sea Princesses would have been more popular if it had received as much love as Combo Rangers. Maybe it’s time that Yabu showed some love to the series after nearly a decade since the last Princesas do Mar book published by Panda Books - I wouldn’t mind seeing rereleases, a graphic novel, ebooks or a compendium of the ten books published by Panda Books (those are the titles that I’m hoping to focus on for the wiki, everything else is irrelevant). With my current situation right now, if I can’t get transcripts or screenshots, then I’d be more happy to spend my money buying ebooks than printed books from Brazil.

Doctor Who

Right at the start of the month, the release date for Doctor Who Series 12 was announced to be on New Year’s Day with subsequent episodes to air on Sundays. Like with Series 11, I’ll be continuing the Thirteenth Doctor reviews after the episode airs. The prelude post will come out later with more details. In fact, it’s because of this that I decided to release this post earlier instead of on New Year’s Eve. That’s pretty much the only reason.

English Dubbed Game News and English dub rants

In case you guys missed it, I’m fully moving on from talking about English dubbed games. I don’t know if anyone ever saw this coming since the end of the feud a couple of years back, but I guess my promise to stand tall back at the end of 2017 must sound ironic now.

As I explained back in September, I’ve lost interest in video games altogether and had conflicting thoughts on how to deal with the occasional toxic comments on my pages. I didn’t mention this back then, but in case you were wondering, no, all the Vic Mignogna stuff did not play a factor in my decision. I’ve never been a fan of him so I don’t care and to be fair, innocent or guilty, he is really only one voice actor. In terms of Koei Tecmo games, he only voiced two characters in Dynasty Warriors 7 and 8 (Jia Xu/Xiahou Ba) along with two characters in Samurai Warriors 3 (Mitsuhide Akechi/Yoshimoto Imagawa), which, I should remind you, never made it onto a Warriors Orochi game. If Koei Tecmo wanted to replace him when the allegations came out, they would have done it already. Ironically however, they did just that with Dynasty Warriors 9, but with the whole cast because of the voice actor strike.

Speaking of the voice actor strike, I’ve noticed something that I never did back when I was writing the rants; a lot of voice actors are part of SAG-AFTRA and I’ve deduced that Japanese game companies are being cheap and cutting corners in localisation (specifically, dubbing) because they don’t want to hire union actors because of the cost (presumably). Additionally, I’ve also read that union actors can’t openly do non-union work, which leads to them being uncredited officially. I know I’ve supported the union during the voice actor strike, but I can’t help but think that I should have criticised them at some point during my rants because their rules for union actors kind of play a factor in this whole debacle of video game dubbing.

I’ve suggested crowdfunding as a way to raise funds to hire (union) voice actors, but in recent years, I’ve seen them go the way of Western game companies and put out season passes and neverending DLC packs. Anyone who defends game companies for being cheap and not dubbing their games has no right to complain about them being greedy in other areas. I kind of saw it coming myself, which didn’t come as a surprise to me. As far as I’ve heard, there aren’t any loot boxes or pay-to-win gimmicks in Japanese games, so I guess I’m still relieved.

As for my opinion on all of this or Japanese game companies, including Koei Tecmo, they haven’t changed much, although I’ve become more and more apathetic towards them given my declining interest in video games. Much as I hate to admit, I’ve gotten back into playing older Warriors games I still have for nostalgia and because I was bored and wanted to procrastinate. This shows that regardless of my thoughts, I’m still grateful towards Koei Tecmo for the games that inspired me in certain aspects of my life.

I’m going to burn a few bridges here and say some fuck yous to a few groups. First of all is a big fuck you to the haters, namely the dub haters, sub purists and opinion-neutrals (that much is obvious). Next up is a fuck you to Japanese game companies for being cheap in localisation (and by extension, even cheaper in DLCs), then a smaller, belated and ironic fuck you to voice actor unions like SAG-AFTRA for making the rules that lead to Japanese game companies being cheap in the first place and enabling them to keep doing it. Finally, a really ironic fuck you goes to my fans and all other fans of English dubbing - the fact that nobody else had made something like EDGN by this point, let alone before I found and joined the page, is really telling of what little you do to promote dub advocacy, let alone not being aware that things like said page or #NoDubNoBuy exist or supporting them by liking or sharing my posts.

Anyway, the current plan is to finish posting whatever games I’ve got in the backlog before New Year’s Eve and then unpublish the page sometime after. I’m not going to delete the page out of respect to its creator, who despite still being an admin on the page, has never posted anything since I joined it. The games list will be kept up through this link for reference. Despite the fuck you I just gave my fans (particularly the 230-so followers on EDGN), I want to thank everyone for the support you gave over the years and invite you to continue following me on my Facebook and Tumblr pages.

The state of social media

I felt that I should address something given YouTube’s new measures regarding COPPA, not forgetting that they literally said that they have no obligation to host content. At the start of last year’s review, I stated that there was always something that managed to affect my Internet life in stupid ways. I haven’t been affected directly this year, but YouTube’s measures have led me to think about what would happen if Facebook were to follow suit, particularly because Tumblr already banned NSFW content at the end of last year and Twitter looks like it’s about to follow suit themselves.

Sure enough, YouTube suddenly updated their harassment policy, which resulted in the Leafy Content Cop being removed as a result of retroactive enforcement. I’ve got nothing much to say about this except that it just proves what we’ve been suspecting all along. To be honest, around the time of the NSFW ban on Tumblr, I was kind of expecting that the parody I did would get flagged ironically, but I guess it never got near the radar, not that there would be any justifiable grounds for it.

Anyone who celebrates censorship or deplatforming with the same argument that “private companies can do whatever they want” should really look at themselves in the mirror because if any of this has proved anything, it’s that anyone can be censored or deplatformed with or without reason whether they’re following the rules or not. You’re all just sitting ducks and you don’t even know it even though you play by their rules in the hope that you won’t be next.

On a more lighter note, I wonder if I should use paragraph gaps instead of horizontal rules in future posts, given that Tumblr removed functionality for the latter in the rich text editor. Sure, I could manually add them in the HTML editor, but it would mean that they would disappear when I switched back to the rich text editor, regardless of whether I saved or not, and it would absolutely kill me to put them back in the exact same spots when I’ve changed something there.

In regards to Hong Kong

Back in August, I made a post about how I nearly got deplatformed from Facebook by the guy behind the feud because of what I said in my repostings of Hong Kong news. I really want to look back and laugh at it now not only because him doing so made him look like a pro-Beijing supporter, but because a pro-Beijing politician he scapegoated as a dub hater in a parody post to evade my criticism of him as such lost his seat in the district council to a pro-democracy newcomer.

In that post, I admitted that I did use some racial slurs in some of my repostings. Given the escalating violence (on both sides, police and protesters) since the start of the protests in June, I’m just gonna come right out and say it - if I could use one word to describe it and the negative reaction from those against the protesters (around the world), it would be the hard-r n-word. I used that word against said pro-Beijing politician because like many other people, I don’t think he’s a good person in any way. He’s advocated violence against pro-democracy supporters, has suspected links to the triads and commended old men in white shirts attacking people in black shirts at a train station following a protest some distance away. If that third thing doesn’t remind you of white (shirt) supremacy, then I don’t know what will. Let’s not forget that at the time, I reposted some news about him not being admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, making him a “fake lawyer n-word”.

In case there are people who disagree with my (former) use of the slur, I want to acknowledge something here. I know I’m using the slur towards Chinese people instead of its historical target, namely people of African origin, but if it helps move the focus away from the latter, then so be it. If I could find another (preferably stronger) word to describe it, then I would, but at this point, I should be lucky that I’m able to control my anger and not use the actual word itself. If you don’t like how I used the n-word at all, then fuck you, you missed the point, but of course, you’re free to leave.

I don’t want to talk about the finer details or criticisms of any party involved in the protests, but I’m quite amazed with the pro-democracy protesters’ motto of not splitting their movement, not condemning the violence from the radical side and not ratting anyone out. In my interpretation, the radical protesters know that their so-called “violence” is illegal, but the other protesters can’t condemn them because words have barely had any effect on the government and they know that the radical protesters are the only people who have a chance of making the government cave into their demands or expose the true sides of Hong Kong and China’s governments to the international community, because their failure to do so five years ago was because they failed to keep their movement together. I probably don’t know as much about this compared to Hong Kong locals or immigrants, but I wager that at least some of my interpretation is spot on.

Two years ago, I said on my personal Facebook page, “I hope that the future of Hong Kong and its politics will improve for the benefit of the people, especially the younger generations, given everything that has happened up to now”. I know it may seem ironic right now, but I believe that the future will continue to improve for the better, but if it turns to the worst, then I hope that due justice may be served.

At the start of this post, I said that I was undergoing a transition into society. I’ll be finishing my university course and graduating at the end of next year, so at this point, I’m currently out looking for work. A lot of people make it look easy, but in truth, it’s been quite excruciating for me; because of some government benefit thing I signed up for, I have a quota of job applications that I need to send per month. It sounds easy, but after a while, it becomes so hard when you look at a job you think you’ll like and realise that you don’t have the necessary skills or experience for it. All I can say for myself is that I’ll keep praying for guidance and hope that I can find something that fits with my timetable, at least until I graduate.

See you all on the other side in 2020.