#maruki's reality

[may-lutlone]

One wish dictated by the other

I can't believe his wish was playing chess with Joker all along 😞😞 stinky hypocrite

[hajimedics]

welcome home persona AU, aka mostly an excuse for me to draw my human designs in classy children’s fairytale-inspired outfits

[afterthelambs]

"Fool's Paradise" by Donna Lewis is so Maruki bad ending coded from Akechi's POV. You captivate their hearts but underneath the mask is a man of straw is too perfect. I just love the idea of joker finally making one selfish decision except it's the absolute worst time to do so

[feral-bird-enjoyer]

Akechi as a ghost haunting LeBlanc...

[emy-san]

Too late.

[maddyshome]

i love how atlus made such a emotional and actually romantic relationship without it even being a relationship. like the other romantic interests simply fade in front of akechi. is it because akiren is a defined character when interacting with akechi? probably yes. he has no need of the players input. 

[arcsin27]

Third semester shuake super paper Mario au

[srapsodia]

the phantom thieves physically go into a palace ruler's cognition when they enter the metaverse, but it's all just cognition, so no matter how hurt they get in there they're fine after they leave, they're only really exhausted.

HOWEVER i love the idea of them getting "cognitive" scars. Like, they're not going to remember every little scrape, and most of them are healed and forgotten, but the really big ones remain. The claw that tore Ryuji's back, the burn marks that almost desintegrated Makoto's glove, the harsh lash of a tail across Yusuke's face that goes down to his neck. Wounds that were healed and by all means shouldnt exist, but they made such an impact that their cognitions keep bringing them back every time.

[brokenhardies]

also to the joker is punished for being selfish crowd;

the phantom thieves consistently apologise for staying in maruki's false reality and not listening to joker. repeatedly. if anything, they're punished for being selfish!!!!

[peribound]

!persona 5 royal spoilers below!

i was reading comments under a video showing the “accept maruki’s reality” ending to persona 5 royal, and i saw a strange amount of people defending it? well, i don’t know if “defending” is the right word per say, but a lot of people said they favoured it over the “return to reality” ending. and i genuinely cannot understand why.

i completely understand that it's nice to see everyone happy and getting along. and it's definitely nice seeing akechi finally have a place of belonging. but i also know it's just a fabricated reality. it reverses all of the emotional development the cast went through and it's like the "and they all lived happily ever after" ending that most storybooks have.

the blind acceptance of maruki's reality completely backs up maruki's motive as well. it's so much simpler to take the easy way out of a situation than work towards an ideal outcome. i understand that. i myself have struggled with mental health and personal issues where i sometimes just wish i could snap those problems away and live my life in peace. but it just ain’t right, yknow?

maruki's reality went against all of the characters development over the course of the game, too. ryuji realizing he didn't need the track team to have a place of belonging, ann working to become stronger for shiho, makoto not wanting to be a pushover and work to become a police commander to avenge her father, they worked for the outcomes they were given, and it was so rewarding to see them grow as the game progressed. and while the maruki reality is nice, because it definitely is, it's not the truth. it was a path chosen for them by an outside influence. a life without struggle is meaningless, you don't learn anything that way, it doesn't MEAN anything.

it reminds me of fanfiction authors who disregard specific aspects of characters so they can make a pairing work better, like yeah you’ve got a sweet emotional love story with two characters you like, but is it really those two characters? or is it just a “perfect” version of them made so that you can take away the extra steps needed to write a meaningful relationship?

i guess my passion comes from a personal place. i’ve dealt with my own mental health for quite some time, and there have been times where i just wished the pain could stop. but now that i’m where i am now, if i was given the opportunity to erase all of that pain? i wouldn’t take it. that pain made me who i am. it made me stronger, it taught me things. i walked my own path and got an outcome i’d consider my ideal reality.

i loved p5r so much. my first exposure to a persona game and it meant so much to me. a game has not made me feel things like this in quite a long time, and i have so much to say about it. thank you for reading this far if you did, and if you have any thoughts regarding it i’d love to hear them. different perspectives make for engaging conversation!

[may-lutlone]

a promised paradise

(I love the garden in Maruki's palace)

[nebulaleaf]

not enough people talk about missing the palace deadline end in third sem. i know it's because there's not a lot of meat to it compared to the "good end" and the "true end" but oughhoggug. it drives me insane in all the best ways. the cobwebs. akira giving in to apathy and going "i dont wanna think any more..." becoming just like the masses he so desperately sought to seperate himself from and save just a week or so prior. marukis ominous as fuck "...for as many days or weeks you have left." the fact that his reasonable choice of action in the face of akira being undecided is to put him asleep forever, as if that's somehow more moral than forcing him into marukis ideal reality

the phone thing! the fact that its implied akira has woken up multiple times and still succumbed to sleep! the blue butterfly attempting to reach out, but ultimately dying! akira is utterly alone and i doubt anyone even remembers him in this reality! its so fucked!!!!

[lesbian-empress-nero]

Miracle of all miracles, Goro Akechi is alive.

Ryuji wonders how he did it. Did he leave the Metaverse before he could bleed out? That seems the most likely. Even Makoto agrees that that’s probably what he did.

Of course, no one would ever ask him.

Ryuji finds it hard to be happy, though. Yeah, he was ecstatic when Akechi and Akira came up the stairs into the attic, but since then... Ryuji hates it. That cold feeling of dread settles in whenever he’s around Akechi, a sense that something is wrong.

He can’t put his finger on it, but Akira seems to sense it too. His expression flickers whenever one of the others brings him up, there’s a look of something akin to sadness in his eyes whenever the two are together. Yet Ryuji clings to the hope that things will be better.

That maybe, just maybe, he’ll get over this weird feeling and he’ll be able to hug Akechi without feeling the desire to throw up.

“Cognition change....? How could that have happened?” Ryuji asks Akira once day.

Their leader had cornered him in LeBlanc after a discussion about venturing into Mementos (they’d be going tomorrow), and had told him about his fears.

Akira was scared that there had been a mass cognition change in people, that Akechi wasn’t truly alive. An ‘ideal reality’ of sorts.

“I’m- I’m not sure, but don’t you think it’s weird how Akechi comes back and suddenly everything is fine? Ryuji, do you remember Kamoshida?”

Ryuji paused. The name sounded familiar, yet frustratingly, he couldn’t recall who that was.

Akira winced, as though in pain. “Shit... Ryuji, I think everyone’s cognition has been changed. Like, a lot. I mean, you don’t even remember the guy who broke your leg!”

Ryuji froze. Almost like the breaking of glass, he remembered. “...Wait, how the hell could I ever forget that shitty bastard!?”

Akira stared at him, looking almost relieved. “...I’m surprised it was that easy to get you to remember,” he confessed, and Ryuji shifted, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable.

“I kinda remembered him anyway. Just couldn’t put a name to a face, which- hey, that’s really effin’ creepy. And weird. How the hell was my cognition changed?”

Akira shook his head, sitting beside hon the booth table. “Wish I knew. But for right now, we just have to figure out if everyone else is the same way- and figure out how to save them.”

Ryuji nodded, still feeling rather unsettled. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

A change in cognition.... Hadn’t Maruki said something like that before? Something about not staying in the reality you were currently in... Ryuji shivered. No time to think about the Doc. Right now, he had to help his best friend save everyone from a freaky cognition change.

He could wonder about that later.

THE AKECHI LIVES AU IS BACK!!! HELL YES MARUKI REALITY TIME WITH THE GANG (akechi, akira, ryuji)!!!!!!!!!!!!! as much as i love the royal gang together for this part of the game and i even wish there was more of them, it would be so cool if ryuji was in there too. he IS the first one to meet up with you again... i need more ryugoro interactions...

[saturns-ninth-moon]

A continuation of my “MARUKI?!?” posts

More accidental Maruki: https://www.tumblr.com/saturns-ninth-moon/713332821190721536/maruki

[epitomees]

What is your curse?

Poor Man's Prophecy

How is a prophet meant to live? When you can see the threads of fate and watch as they fall into folly's knot. You can see the mistakes a year away. You know best how to weave them. When it comes time for your own hands to work, you know they are naturally clumsy-- you know they ache; you know why; you know what would make them whole. You know why you choose to keep weaving. You know why you know why you know. No one can help you because you already know-- what can they say that a prophet has not already weighed? What new stones can they turn when you spend your nights watching the butterfly's wings? Some things do not have easy answers. You know this too. And yet still-- you hurt. You will always hurt. You know.

Tagged by: Stole it Tagging: STEAL IT!

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

i hate the take that akechi is "not himself" unless he's just as cold and mean as he is in third semester, that akechi and happiness and kindness are unable to coexist. maruki's reality forcibly shaves off his hard edges and that's wrong, and yes i do think akira prefers akechi genuine and he appreciates his rougher, meaner side. but to act like akira wants goro to stay bitter and jaded and cruel for the rest of his life is just? i don't get it. why would you want that for him. why do you think akechi is inherently incapable of goodness. goro doesn't have to erase himself to get better. he's capable of that all on his own even if he doesn't believe that. akechi can be happy. akechi can be happy.