#persona 5 scramble spoilers

[leelreallylikespersona]

Okay I wanna know

I am not adding Azathoth/Adam because I know they'll win because of their affiliation with Maruki, this is about the demiurges, give them some love (～￣▽￣)～

[starryoak]

I don’t think people appreciate enough how Ichinose is basically textually an autistic woman who was not only never diagnosed or helped with her issues but actively abused until she believed she was fundamentally broken, not even human, but some outsider to real humanity.

Her behavior, her “lack of heart”, the emotional regulation issues she clearly demonstrates with her outbursts, intended or not, she is autistic, and the real tragedy of her storyline is that she has no idea that she is. 

She’s been so isolated by the abuse she suffered that she has no idea that she’s not alone in the world feeling like this, that it takes her daughter reaching out to her for her to feel not alone.

And the tragedy still exists, that she may think she can only relate to Sophia because she’s a robot, and not because they’re both autistic, and that there’s a world of people out there like them to meet.

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

I find the idea of the Phantom Thieves fighting a new version of Yaldabaoth on every one of their vacations together to be hilarious. Yaldy is like "you've fought me 5 times in the last 2 years just give up already" and the Thieves shout back "WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP THATS OUR WHOLE FUCKING THING"

[thatmightyheart]

p5s yusuke is so good and funny (nonsense comic)

[ca-3]

"...it's cozy and has everything I need. Care to join me?"

8/28 is Sophia's birthday!! ❤️🎉

[sad-thief-noises]

Aw rats

[hobie-doh]

Strikers is for the girls, gays and theys and I am positive of this.

Every time I talk to a straight guy about Strikers they just start going off about how they hate it and how awful it is and that's its soulless but like... no?

Comparative to the dancing games, I'd say Strikers is built with this... love I guess? Sure everyones been flanderized but in the same way the fandom does, turned up to 11 and it's great, Yusuke loves his lobsters, Ryujis aggressiveness a bro, Futaba's grown a bunch but also is still just a delightful and gamery as ever, Makoto's straight laced but willing to cut back, they GAVE Haru a personality.

Plus I'd even say that outside of Demiurge 3.0 (that was bad, kinda killed it for me) the things that repeat expand on everyone in a really nice way.

Alice parallels Ann a lot, and one of my favorite aspects of the villains in Strikers is that for the most part, they could have been our heroes.

With the exception of like, Futaba, Makoto, and Akira (Kurusu, not Konoe) ig but they got their times to shine.

Thinking about Natsume and Yusuke keeps me awake at night in the good way, Yusuke going off on him over the Sayuri had such an impact I straight up misremembered it as a cinematic cutscene.

Welp thats it for my Strikers rant for the moment, a friend of mine was talking smack about it and I had to rant a little.

[katagawajr]

everyone’s favorite persona-wielding father figure

[kastillia]

a hero like me

[seapasture]

I just had a spree doing 'Which Phantom Thief Are You?' quizzes pessimistically expecting an Akechi sweep but was pleasantly surprised with four Yusuke results (and three Akechi ones but shhh)

[leelreallylikespersona]

Oh goodness who remembers these

[starryoak]

I always feel bad for the first three Strikers villains, because as far as we can really tell, they never did anything really bad before they were given a Jail, and, well, we fairly clearly see that having a Jail inherently turns you into the worst version of yourself, obsessed with keeping the Desires you’ve stolen and collecting more of them. Think about it, because we learn through the request system that Shadows obsessively clutch at Desires (see the Pyro Jack, who I REFUSE to call Jack’o-lantern), and also from Ubukata, so could you argue that they were sort of being supernaturally drugged, in a way?  I don’t feel bad for Konoe or Ubukata, they both got bit by the wolf they were feeding with EMMA, but the others didn’t really have a choice in it all, just had the misfortune of being chosen by them. There’s no reasonable way you could call any of them in their right minds when they were being supernaturally mind controlled by forces outside of their knowledge or understanding. They were already hooked by the first friend request, and the first friend request, well, they wouldn’t have known it was anything other than a social media app. Think about it; we get no evidence they were ever really bad people in the same sense as any of the Palace owners, the closest we get is Natsume plagiarizing, but frankly, we get no real evidence he’s not just a really bad and unoriginal author in the same sense a teenager’s first fanfiction is usually like, 80% the last cool thing they watched but in writing form. These characters had no choice in becoming bad people, and now they have to live with the actions that they had very little control over for the rest of their lives, and it makes me feel very sad for them, in a cosmic sense. 

I don’t think it absolves them of punishment for their actions, but it really does strike (heh) me that these people had never done anything substantial wrong before receiving EMMA, and then dropped immediately off the deep end.

The way I see it, Palaces are a manifestation of a sickness of the mind that can be cured in reality, because it originated in reality, and Jails are an inflicted sickness of the mind caused by controlling their Shadows. It’s why I feel so bad for all of the first three Monarchs, because they had never done anything really wrong before they were brainwashed into it by EMMA. And it just makes me sad, because these people were horribly taken advantage of by Konoe and had effectively no recourse, and all of the bad things they had done were because of that.

It feels like they failed to get justice, though with Mariko, you can argue, as she did, that it was her responsibility as mayor, and I think she wouldn’t want to be pardoned. But with Alice and Natsume it feels as though they deserved more recompense for what was done to them, or at least they should be informed more of what happened to them alongside the investigation into Maddice. Mariko as well, though she’d probably still want to take responsibility for it, they just deserve to know that they were being brainwashed, even if they don’t learn the mechanics of how. They deserve to know that they aren’t inherently awful people who deserve bad things to happen to them forever for what happened.

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

an old comic for an old au i will never write that i call my Akechi & Sophia Murder Buddies AU. basically, what if akechi infiltrated ichinose’s palace and found sophia inside. sophia is very similar to akechi in a lot of ways, and it got me thinking how her arc would look different if she met someone like akechi instead of the phantom thieves. also, their dynamic would be comedy gold. more details under the cut

bonus:

so, the catalyst for the au is shido learning about ichinose's research into cogpsi in late september (idk if this timeline matches up, it probably doesn't, but let's just say i'm moving what ichinose does up to earlier in the timeline for the sake of the au). he has goro infiltrate her palace to get information on this and determine if she's a threat. goro finds absolutely nothing in her palace, which is a near-empty dollhouse with only lifeless dolls and furniture inside. shadow ichinose herself is nowhere to be found. he's just about to call it a wash when he stumbles upon the cognition of sophia and accidentally awakens her.

sophia insists on being goro's companion, much to his chagrin, and follows him around the palace as he tries to leave. however, on the way out they run into ichinose's cognition of EMMA, which tries to eliminate both of them. sophia "awakens" to her "persona" and saves akechi's life. tired from the fight, akechi bails on ichinose's palace without bothering to find ichinose's shadow. when akechi leaves the palace, he mysteriously still finds sophia on his phone in the real world--and he decides, well if i'm stuck with her, she might as well help me out in the metaverse. (he is Not happy about any of this.)

akechi tells shido ichinose is a nobody. he doesn't know if this is true but neither does he care. akechi and sophia enter a deal--she will help him eliminate evil targets, being his helpful companion, if he helps her find her creator after his plan of revenge is over. akechi has no intentions of keeping his side of the deal (at first).

sophia becomes increasingly heartless and cruel under akechi's influence, to a point where it even starts to shock him. essentially, its the opposite of her arc in strikers--instead of her gaining a heart by making friends and learning what love, kindness, and justice are, she becomes more heartless and robotic without their guidance. meanwhile, akechi starts to actually care about sophia, and feels a deep seeded guilt about what he's done to her--while being very much in denial about all of this. in essence, they have opposite effects on one another.

but things get interesting when goro still ends up joining the phantom thieves, but this time with sophia in tow......

(maybe i'll draw a comic about that someday and share more of the au then hehe)

[hypogryffin]

Erina and Sophie....

erina and sophie..... perhaps even sophie and erina....

[cobwebinthecorner]

Okay but I would actually pay another fucking $60 just to get Strikers outfits as DLC costumes in the rerelease versions of P5R

They could even make a Zenkichi one for Akechi and a Sophia one for Kasumi!

[ya-kiri]

I'm at the Tree of Knowledge in Persona 5 Strikers in the RV. The theme (at least the piano part) kind of sounds like the theme of Maruki's Palace. Am I the only one who can hear it?