#persona 5x theories

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

P5X (II and X and other numbers) Analysis

After seeing the whole “Persona II”......I have questions.

Is “Persona II” only for the Greco-Roman trio? Is it also for the OG Trio (Wonder/Closer/Cattle) too?

Is it “Persona 2″? (oh P5 with your P1/2/4 vibes kfjdsakfj) As in the roman numeral 2? (which is why it might only be the Greco-Roman trio)? Is it actually “Persona 11″ with the I’s representing 1, but we aren’t suppose to read it like Roman numeral 2 but instead two 1s together? (ro the Ii clan from the Sengoku era)? 

BUT NOW it’s got me thinking about P5X. Is this going to be another Danganronpa V3 bs thing??? (spoilers for DRV3)

Where V3 actually means 53′rd??? 

I swear to god I don’t think I can do this again. TT0TT Is P5X suppose to be like P510? (like P5 and followed by the roman numeral 10?) P50 (10*5)? P60 (omg P6? kljdsf 50+10)? P15 (10+5)? Or P29 (5 plus 24, “x” being the 24th letter in the alphabet). Or is it PEX (E is the 5th letter, x is the 24th). (wait PEX is also known as  Cross-linked polyethylene, Cross is in that!). 

X could be cross (someone pointed out how the last concert had a “cross road’s theme).......but I doubt it’s related to a pipe. lksdjflkjf

Of course X could mean an unknown value...... Or it could mean kiss (like Xs and Os jklsjlfa haha that’d be silly).

Or it could stand for the  Suzhou numerals  which is  〤.... Which is 4.... (wait P4????? My P4 senses just keep tingling with this game!). Which means it’s P54??? Or P9???? 030 Haha what if it is 2019? And the Whale...and it’s actually Persona Trinity Soul....haha.... TT0TT

Is it suppose to be “chi/𝜒” and not x? Persona 5 Key? Persona 5 Chi? XD We’re getting Kingdom hearts up in here, not just Danganronpa jdsakflj;f

It could be a multiplication symbol, but there’s nothing after it..... It’s like 5 times..... what? 0? Then it’s P0? Hahaha *sobs* Or maybe we haven’t seen the other “number” yet? Maybe it’s 5x5 (cause they are both P5 related) so it’s P25-

........................... P5 25th anni................................. is that.....is that it? TT0TT

Ok I ran through all my inane and insane possibilities. 

[milkshake-999]

Theory: The hooded man is Seiji. The age matches up with Seiji being a second-year in high school, and the black bangs look similar to his too. They both also have a blue color motif.

[p5x-theories]

Three new teammates were revealed in the new trailer! The top left doesn't look like anyone we've seen, and neither does the top right, but the middle one is almost without a doubt Tomoko, Motoha's friend that we met in the first beta!

Same haircut, same glasses, same eyes, and they're both wearing pink... they're similar enough that I'd really be surprised if it wasn't her, honestly.

[shadowtarot]

According to this, Persona 5X takes place in a Parallel Universe to Persona 5. Both worlds are interacting due to a certain event.

@p5x-theories

[fictionkinfessions]

A while back I had a memory of a fellow student who loved photography and took photos of everyone the year before for a yearbook. I didn’t remember much about her except that she was a girl.

Anyway, today I saw a photo for the summer event with Tomoko. And in it she had a camera which looked almost identical to the one I recalled. She seemed very similar to the girl I remembered too. So um… I guess Tomoko really liked photography haha! She seemed quite close with me too, so I guess that confirms the theory I’ve had for a while that I had been friends with Motoha since the year before. It’s quite sweet, I think I’m going to cry.

— Wonder (Persona 5X) #📺🎙️💥

0

[playingwithstarsabove]

Persona 5X Notes

I had a big brain moment for a minute and I need to list it out:

What if the culprit behind the Third semester (look over to @starryoak 's Persona 5 theory for more information.) is responsible for this game's conflict? This game and the Third Semester have this big theme of Desires and how it seems "better" to not have them.

What is the "Phantom Countdown" everyone seems to be talking about? What will happen when the clock strikes zero? I'm a bit surprised that the team doesn't question this.

The biker that nearly attacks the protagonist. The "Uber gets on train to attack a kid who disappears" isn't talked about at all. They MUST know about the Metanav on his phone and must've purposefully gunned for him to activate it. What is their true identity and do they fully know about the Metaverse?

The newspaper in the one cutscene must be important for that shot. Will the events described in them factor into the game?

If Merope really is a traitor, then there's a high chance that the Phantom Idols you gain will end up turning on you as a twist.

[lichedits]

Greetings! Please may one request rainbow icons of Wonder and lesbian icons of Motoha Arai, both from Persona (5X)? If you’d prefer just one to do then the Wonder icons are fine. Thank you very much for considering and feel free to decline. I understand that the game is still China/Korea/Taiwan only, so you need any images I recommend the blog p5x-theories!

i decided to do just wonder since i'd like to remain unspoiled for p5x for the most part until the game hits global; this is finished & in the queue!

[leoprincess777]

⚡ astrobservations p.2 ⚡♌

🌟 houses

*this is a new theory i came up with but we might experience the energy of the opposite of our houses. for example, as a 1h venus person you may act more like a 7h venus where you avoid confrontation and value keeping the peace. as a 7h venus, you may act more like a 1h venus where you give more appericiation to your appearance and be more aggressive and argumentative.

as a 6h sun, you may find it more difficult to accomplish tasks at hand and be productive and it may feel like a burden to you, but you may easily get in contact with the astral realm and embrace your higher self.as a 12h sun, you may easily be productive and finish tasks and chores but struggle with surrendering to the divine, diving deep into spirituality or struggle to accept your gifts.

*mercury in 7h love to debate other people and share their ideas with other people

*jupiter in 5th gives excellent stage presence and abundance of creativity, its the ultimate performer and creator placement. people with chart ruler in 5h jupiter are often destined to become a creator/performer which can even mean being a tourist guide or a youtuber

*mercury in 5th people are never boring and they are extremely pleasant people who will make everything 5x more fun than it is. school work, chores, everything is funner with them!

🌟 synastry

*be VERY careful when getting into a relationship with 8th house synastry, especially if you are the planet person because you will most likely form an extreme attachment and obsession to the house person that will last for a very long time and can go into unhealthy lenghts. because you are the planet person and this is 8th house synastry we are talking about, the house person has immense power over you and they know it. they can see right through you. as the planet person, you want to be their one and only and feel they empower you, which makes you crave to be with them more because they give you power and their presence helps you get through anything. you will never forget about them and they become embeded in your subconscious. the house person will feel disturbed and triggered by you psychologically. but they become fascinated with the planet person. this makes an extremely transformative relationship. they bring out your true personality (especially if your sun is in their 8th house) to the surface and you trigger the heck out of them.   the planet person usually finds the house person when the house person is at their rock bottom and sometimes vice versa. 

 *venus conjunct sun synastry has an effect where the venus person is widely known as the sun person’s sweetheart. the venus person becomes a magnefied and known person in the sun persons life, almost like a celebrity couple/duo while the sun person is known by the venus persons’ favorite people and inner circle mostly.

*12th house synastry is a BITCH i fucking hate it because it makes everything so blurry and unknown you have no idea wtf is going on but you also cant make your way out and you idealise the person a lot

6th house synastry is EXCELLENT because you’re involved in each others lives so much. more often than not, you spend majority of your time in a day together whether by hanging out or texting and the planet person usually reports the house person what are they doing during the day (like a random text of “im repairing a bike rn” or “im going to x, i’ll be back in awhile” etc) and you care about each other A LOT. the planet person can take a director role in the house persons life and they help each other a lot

mars conjunctions are wonderful synastries for sticking through thick and thin, it makes a very dynamic and sexy couple

with mercury in 7th house synastry, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for the love to remain as a secret if it’s a romance relationship. it will come out. one of you will admit it sooner or later

🌟 other

*wherever your mars is placed in, is where you’re not scared to take action or assert yourself. example: my pisces mars friends are not afraid of getting in dangerous waters likecliff diving, swimming in wild waves, going too deep in water etc. i, as a leo mars am not afraid of putting myself out there and performing

*sagittarius suns love to eat, while sagittarius moons have less appetite and desire to eat

*aries moons love themes of war, they have a warrior-like approach to most things

*aries-pisces people turn war and warriorhood into fantasy and make it dreamlike. (example: grimes’ (a pisces sun aries moon) WarNymph persona)

*i didnt observe this myself but read that mars opposite uranus people have deranges pasts with knives and it’s SO true.

*fire moons enjoy energetic and upbeat music, earth moons love chill music (like indie, lofi, can be r&b too maybe), air moons can enjoy techno music&rap, and i’m not sure about water moons cause i don’t have many water moons in my life but i’m thinking they would enjoy songs with lyrics or beats that make them feel something and songs with stories. i’ve seen that they tend to listen to music of all kinds. earth moons openly discriminate amongst genres and dgaf

*pisces placements have divine intelligence and are revolutionaries. this is rarely mentioned and pisces are often described as “airheads” which they are because of their giant imaginations and unique thought process but it’s a sign of intelligence. pisces people pick up on ANYTHING so quickly, absorb information like a sponge and analyze it themselves to form an opinion and understand it. their thoughts and opinions often dont make to other people or shock them. they will bring revolution and newness into whatever area they are working with. (example: einstein, rihanna, grimes (she’s literally trying to make the “ethereal techno” an official genre and creating avatars. revolution), billie eilish, kurt cobain (helllooo  grunge king), paul mccartney, copernicus, aamir khan, steve jobs are all either pisces suns or risings

*sagittarians are similar in the sense that they like to discover new paths. they have the star quality (walt disney, britney spears, brad pitt, nicki minaj)

*it makes sense that the world’s most famous celebrity right now is a leo (kylie jenner)

*sagittarius and gemini risings have thick and pretty hair. it’s well styled and you want to run your hand through it. they’re physically advantaged

*aries suns and moons will just create trouble if they cant find it cause they love to throw themselves in tricky and dangerous situation as they feed off of it

*cancer moons get fucking poetic and dramatic at the slightest conflict, argument or emotional moment like they fucking channel the spirit of shakespeare. shhtoppp

*air sun, moon, mercury & venus dont like sadness, depression or traumatic memories so they will often program themselves to forget about heartbreaks or traumatic events and move on like they never happened or change the story and tell people different stories about what happened to convince themselves and twist reality.

*moon-saturn often naturally restricts food intake

most socialists/communists have taurus and sagittarius placements it’s INCREDIBLE

leo ic people are inherently and naturally charming af, thats because they are usually SHOWERED with love and affection as a child, they are often the only child and the golden child which obviously feeds someone with confidence for their life later on

libra moons will judge you on the inside if you are ugly sjdljsdf they dont like to be in aesthetically unpleasent spaces

[elizabethrobertajones]

“The Most Meta Finale”  Or, on trying to disown old canon since season 11.

To be honest, I was going to spend today re-watching some season 6 episodes to see if I could come up with a much more modest plausible theory about the reason there was so much AU and time travel nonsense especially in the latter half of the season, was because of a theme of shattering canon, quite deliberately. In a way of staking a claim but also washing hands of messing up the stuff that came before. And instead I ended up giving myself a migraine seeing canon since season 5 as something that's been repeatedly disowned and carefully distanced from over and over.

In 5x22 Chuck ends the story with his definitive THE END on the whole mess. Of course it's a bit ridiculous because season 6 was already long foretold and the story was going to have to continue. But Chuck sits there representing the author, in a very unsubtle way, with his finished drink, finished manuscript, and all cleaned up, washing his hands of the Chuck the Prophet persona and going on to chill out and enjoy the ~finished story~

6x15, though, represents in the most meta ridiculous ways the trouble the show felt, or lampooned itself being stuck with, having to continue on into season 6, with the theme in 6x15 and then seriously in 6x20, being what to do when the original story was over, and how to continue on. In The French Mistake "Bob Singer" dismisses the entire idea of season 6 out loud, rolling his eyes at the fact they're continuing to make the story. At the end of the episode he is killed off, and "Kripke" is taken out with much dramatic fanfare (and the same music as 6x18's cowboy confrontation, which amuses me no end and is another weird link between the episodes about travels in time and space, testing the bounds of the universe they're written in, and breaking them.) Of course killing "Kripke" off is the very unsubtle message about the death of the author, a metatextual image that goes with God leaving the story and sending it off into the wild. Kripke (the real one) wrote 6x22 as his final episode, before leaving it all in others' hands since then. On pretty much every level of the story it's handed off to writer after writer.

I think it's interesting that the "original story" is captured within the show as the Winchester Gospels (and my tag for that has plenty of amusing exploration of the ways this makes canon fascinatingly more complex) - but also that it makes SUCH a clear divide between the Original Story aka the subject of the Gospels, and what comes after. Charlie giggles in delight at discovering that the seemingly random hunters she meets later in their story have been the subject of the books and have such a meta backstory, and in 8x20 their lives are turned into a low key conflict between the real and the novelised in the way Charlie interacts with them. 

In 10x05 they see their lives from the outside, Marie's canon which echoes their lives up to the point the Original Story ends, and we get another line which is one of my favourites in that episode, dismissing everything that comes after 5x22 as terrible fan fiction. Not that Calliope thinks she did much better...

I've written somewhere else about the meta episodes or characters such as Metatron showing the writers' anxiety about taking on the story, and it often comes with this deep horror of the weight on them to continue the story, the meta story within the story also making this shove on them that shackles them to this narrative of the Original Story. I also should have really included Metatron being waved off into the Empty or wherever in between Chuck's disappearances but I ran out of gif space up there... 

Rewatching 11x20 recently I was deeply struck by how alike Metatron and Chuck are even down to their little curly haired vessels, though of course with wonderfully acted different bearings to make their personalities and place in the story clear. 

Metatron has his own huge part to play in representing the story and the deep, deep anxiety they had about following on from it. In 9x18 Metatron burns a copy of Tall Tales while trying to stand above the old canon, and Chuck takes him to task for it in 11x20, and Metatron folds and admits he's a terrible copy-cat writer, the anxieties you can see all over his appearances in Carver era while trying to wrangle the story in his favour. And in the end Chuck leaves his desk with a manuscript on it again just like in 5x22, though this time going to what he thinks may be his end:

These moments of trying to end or box off old canon with Death of the Author moments are incredibly numerous. We have Chuck leaving in 5x22, "Kripke" dying in 6x15, the entire plot of 10x05 being about Calliope coming to consume the author, and the meta nonsense there, and then Metatron's death, Chuck slated to die but saved by network panic about what you can and can't show on screen... 

This shot of Chuck was a zoom out in comparison to the zoom in on dead "Kripke", but feels very similar, especially with Amara having raged at him about the story, after in 11x20 Chuck refused to allow it to be her story. Of course the resolution allows the suppressed, forgotten, fridged feminine side of the story to be released, and Mary is brought back. And after Chuck and Amara - now joint authors of the story with her action to bring Mary back creating the narrative of season 12 and flipping the influence from the douchey male creator to the women whose stories were never told, we've had ANOTHER absconding of the authors of the story, once again leaving the story in a sort of 5x death of the author situation, and once again like season 6, which season 12 mirrored in many ways, scrambling to understand their ends of the story.

I think the destruction of old canon seems almost like a necessary sort of household chore on the story - a chance to try and reclaim it, to put it into the hands of new author figures within the story, and an attempt for those left behind after showrunners and enormous creative influences like Edlund (who set Metatron up to go, threw him at the story, and left) or Robbie (who set Chuck up, threw him at the story, and left) have gone. Once Carver left somewhere before the end of season 11, we entered the rather strange world of the first time since season 2 not having part of the "Carver Edlund" duo the show's own God was named after on the writing team, and Dabb, who had been with the show almost as long as Carver and written more episodes than any other writer by like, the end of season 10, so will probably hold that title forever now, was left to remove the characters related to all this from the show, to start fresh.

And it seemed like everyone was having a stab at telling the story - the BMoL in particular twice referenced 9x18 and Metatron in a bid to wrangle control of the story with face on talking to the camera asking for stories or typing them - although lampshaded that the story really wasn’t going their way.

I find it really fascinating then to look back to season 6 and these other examples of trying to disown and distance the story from the old canon, to try and strike out and say the story now belongs to someone else, that these old parts of it are no longer our parts of it, though they influence us and we draw from them. If season 6 was using these AUs and time travel stories (The French Mistake, My Heart Will Go On and Frontierland) to explore the shattering of the world (before 6x21 and 6x21 explored smashing open Purgatory and bringing in new monsters and new plotlines to change the game for season 7), then season 12 referencing the most meta of all these examples when bringing in its own AU seems to me to be very deeply relevant.

The premise of the AU is one that in a way wipes the slate clean - removing the Winchesters, their entire influence, trashing every single word in those gospels, so the story can never happen that way, in a way is the freshest start so far. If season 13 focuses on characters like Michael or Bobby's experience of this AU and give us another history, an explanation of where it all went different, which all seems fairly likely at this point that we should learn more and understand the motivations and lives lead in the Winchesters' absence, then I think this really will live up to the threat that this was the most meta finale yet. A throwaway reference to the French Mistake doesn't SEEM to make it all that meta on the surface. But in the immediate context of the episode, the AU's description, of being turned on Mary's deal not being made, was used to absolve her and lift up Sam and Dean in the context of their own world - that they'd made the right choices, that they had authored their own world far better than it would have been without them.

I am very curious to see what Dabb does with his clean slate, after he used season 12 to try and tie up as many loose ends as humanly possible, and churn up references to almost every part of old canon into the story to give it another hearing, another perspective, another chance to be told. I think season 12 was very much the tidying away season and an AU with potentially completely different rules, and definitely an entirely other history and sets of characters, is an interesting way to re-make the show in... something's image. I suppose these thoughts are for revisiting in the aftermath of the end of the season and whatever that ends up bringing...

[ramialkarmi]

After buying PureWow, Gary Vaynerchuk's company is launching a new men’s media brand meant to capture the collision of entrepreneurship and pop culture

After buying women's lifestyle media brand PureWow in 2017, Gary Vaynerchuk's company is launching its first new media brand under the Gallery Media Group umbrella.

One37pm will be a young men's brand meant to capture the collision between pop culture and entrepreneurship ("the grind").

There will be no negative stories and no wall between the advertising and editorial teams, much the same as PureWow.

Gallery Media Group head Ryan Harwood sees this as just the start, and says the company could build or buy other media properties in the coming months.

When serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk bought PureWow in early 2017, the plan was to use the women’s lifestyle media company to launch a suite of brands under the leadership of its CEO Ryan Harwood.

After about 16 months tinkering under the hood, "Gallery Media Group" is finally having its coming-out party with the introduction of a new men’s brand called One37pm (stylized “ONE37pm”), which will focus on pop-culture topics like style, music, and sports, through “the lens of entrepreneurship.”

This isn't a business publication, strictly speaking. "Entrepreneurship," in this case, is meant to signify the broader mindset of how its intended audience approaches life, rather than a focus on specific business pursuits (“the grind,” as Harwood put it to Business Insider in a recent interview).

At its core, One37pm is an aspirational brand that will aim to capture the collision of worlds like tech, professional sports, and hip hop.

“They all want to be entrepreneurs,” Harwood said of various pop-culture luminaries.

There's a reason One37pm has such an odd name 

The name One37pm is meant to evoke a single, random minute of the day (1:37 p.m.).

“You have to be prepared to own your minute at any moment,” Harwood said, explaining what the brand would try and convey to its 18-29 male audience.

Though Harwood will oversee One37pm, and all the brands in Gallery Media Group, it’s hard not to see Vaynerchuk’s kinetic, go-go-go persona reflected in the ethos.

“Gary embodies a lot of these qualities,” Harwood agreed.

Another person who comes to mind is tech billionaire Elon Musk, and indeed one of the products debuting at launch is a daily briefing for Amazon’s Alexa called "Musk Listen," which will “update you daily on what The Musk is up to.”

No negative stories or snark

One thing you won’t see on One37pm, nor on PureWow, is a negative story. The motto of Gallery Media Group generally is “make positivity louder.”

“We are not going to be tearing down anyone,” Harwood said. “We are going to have strong opinions or voice … [but we are] not going to be snarky.” If One37pm thinks someone is full of hot air, a common occurrence in the entrepreneurship space, it will not write about them.

One37pm will also not try to present itself as an “authority,” Hardwood said (“we are not going to do it in the GQ way”). Instead, it will be more of a booster of ideas and people that resonate with its editors. “Look at these two kids who created a backpack brand,” for instance, Harwood continued.

No wall between editorial and advertising

There will also not be the traditional journalistic divide between advertising and editorial teams (though Gallery Media Group brands are separate from VaynerMedia, which both exist under VaynerX).

“There is no church and state wall,” Harwood said, which is also how PureWow operates. “The whole theory is great content should be great content whether a brand pays for it or not,” he said, though it will be labeled as such per FTC regulations. This sidesteps a potential concern about a publisher being owned by an agency, since if there is no wall to begin with, there is no wall to protect.

Vaynerchuk described the branded content as a “cosign from the logo.” Branded content has been an integral part of PureWow as well, accounting for 85% of revenue when Vaynerchuk bought the company.

“We do not want a separate team creating the branded content,” Harwood said. At launch, there will be 5-7 editors working on One37pm, he added.

This time Vayner is building a media brand rather than buying

One37pm is launching at an uncertain time for digital media, with a rocky advertising market and unreliable Facebook traffic for many outlets, but Harwood thinks he has an effective strategy in place.

PureWow “revenue is growing double digits year-over-year still,” he said. When PureWow sold to Vaynerchuk in early 2017, Harwood said the company had been profitable for several years with about 30% margins. A source familiar with the matter said PureWow generated around $20 million in 2016.

“Our business model isn’t predicated on selling against a programmatic landscape,” Vaynerchuk said.

PureWow has stayed at around 11 million monthly unique visitors (via ComScore) since Vaynerchuk bought it, though Harwood said it has "grown social footprint over 5x."

Harwood said he doesn’t want to aggressively scale PureWow (or One37pm), which would be a tough proposition anyway given the focus on native advertising and individualized brand deals. 

Instead, the goal is to assemble a bunch of PureWows targeted at different audiences (like a traditional magazine publisher portfolio, or that of a company like Vox Media).

As to potential M&A, Harwood said the company is agnostic in “build versus buy.”

“It’s very possible in a year from now [we’ll] buy a media brand,” he said.

“Most things are overpriced right now,” however, Vaynerchuk said.

FaceTime and Belvedere

What you will see on day one from One37pm?

The brand will launch with a set of social channels — Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook — and a podcast sponsored by Belvedere vodka called “Live from the Bar Cart.” One of the first podcast guests will be YouTube star Casey Neistat, who also very much embodies the brand spirit.

The landing page will be live at One37pm.com, but the website will launch a month later.

One social-media franchise Harwood and Vaynerchuk pointed to as particularly representative of the brand is called “#face2facetime,” in which One37pm editors will do 1-5 minute FaceTime interviews with notable people. The idea is to get their “hot take in that moment,” Harwood said, to get in the head of someone who is “grinding right now.”

Mary Kate McGrath, the head of content for Gallery Media Group, said she seeing the brand as "filling a white space" in the market, particularly because of its focus on young men.

But Harwood said One37pm is just the start.

With a "VC-backed or public company, you think in 90-day terms," Harwood said. "For the first time in my career, I'm able to think long term." 

SEE ALSO: 'Billions' star Maggie Siff on how Tony Robbins helped her prep, and why her character feels like a 'big cosmic joke'

Join the conversation about this story »

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[milkshake-999]

I have a theory.

[p5x-theories]

ok so my current theory is that the deal w/ the MetaNav and the snake looking thing around it is connected to Jörmungandr, the world serpent

I got led to this idea based on the protag's persona being of Slovakian origin. Initially I did look into the much closer Slavic mythology first, but the fiery serpent in that didn't seem to actually fit, and Norse was the next closest.

I think it fits cause of Jörmungandr being a serpent who encircles the world, in this case the world being the Metaverse, and dwells within the sea, fitting the aquarium setting of the Velvet Room this time. Additionally, since Jörmungandr does have a connection to the Ouroboros symbol it also fits well to the MetaNav icon, even if that snake isn't rlly biting its tail, and to the hollowed out circle design of the Velvet Room table this time

Another thing about Ouroboros I just learned about actually in connection to Jungian psychology is that it can act as a dramatic symbol of the integration & assimilation of the opposite, ie. the shadow. Which is just another thing that makes this feel even more fitting

Ooo, this is great research!!! The pieces really seem to fall together here, I think you might be onto something!

[p5x-theories]

Here's the... Persona portraits? Not sure what to call them... for all the new Personas! As I mentioned, Styx has two (both in the middle row), with the second being named "Portia" instead, possibly similarly to how Yuki, Seiji, and Mont have different codenames in many of their files?

Some other interesting ones:

Izanagi and Asterius are here!

These two. The latter looks vaguely like Labrys from P4 Arena? Not sure if these are the same person- they're named "laldui01" and "laldui02", rather than any name I recognize. It may be a Shadow- Kiuchi's Shadow has two portraits:

Also, there's one other portrait I don't recognize, which actually is in the files twice (just flipped horizontally, with no other change as far as I can tell?):

They're named "chiyome" and "zhuanshu-chiyome". She reminds me a little of what we know a future Palace Ruler's Shadow (obviously, spoilers for something past the demo's storyline if you click the link) looks like, but that's completely a guess at this point. She could be a Persona just as easily as she could be a Shadow.

[p5x-theories]

Okay, on that note, I have a theory, and it’s sort of... inconclusive, I guess, more pointing out the pattern than making a guess as to what the pattern means, but maybe someone’ll find it interesting:

At least in the beta playtest, Yuki, Seiji, and Mont seem to have about as much relevance as the original Phantom Thieves- they can be rolled in the gacha, and included in part of your battle team like a normal teammate, but then it’s sort of like they don’t exist at all outside of that?

We get proper introductions to Wonder, Cattle, and Closer, with awakenings for two of those three (not Cattle, but that’s probably meant to parallel Mona). But once you get one of the other three on your team, they just sort of suddenly exist, as far as it appears in the gameplay? And I haven’t seen a sign of them outside of the Metaverse yet, as opposed to Riko and the other suspected teammate, the blue-haired punk guy we don’t have a name for yet, who clearly exist in the school and interact with the protagonist.

This is even mostly true with the datamined assets; Yuki has what looks like a real-world portrait, but I haven’t seen anyone post one for Seiji or Mont yet, so I’m starting to wonder if they exist at all. Granted, I haven’t seen Metaverse outfit portraits for Riko and the other guy yet, so it could just be a byproduct of the limits imposed by the playtest.

But like, why have two teammates (possibly the punk guy, and Riko) that they’re not going to introduce yet in this promo image, instead of Yuki, Seiji, and/or Mont there instead?

And why do Wonder, Cattle, and Closer have real codenames (in the sense that they’re not literally their names), but Yuki, Seiji, and Mont don’t?

It probably ties into whatever the article revealing them was talking about in calling them “TAs” and saying they use the power of “Persona II”, but I guess I just think it’s interesting that they’re new characters but so far seem to only have as much involvement as the original P5 characters, in about every way we can measure at the moment.

Not to mention how things tied to the original Phantom Thieves, such as Big Bang Burger and Leblanc, are gone in P5X, replaced with Big Burger and a more generic coffee shop.

[p5x-theories]

So early on in gameplay this guy shows up, though he doesn’t say anything, he just sits alone on the roof (in his first appearance, eating instant ramen). Apparently datamined files refer to him as “Soy”, and there are some voice lines by that name as well that suggest he’s another teammate. He might be the cowboy-like silhouette in this promotional image, as that’s the only unidentified teammate left?

[p5x-theories]

Idk if there’s anything that supports or goes against this theory other than the trailer and stuff I’ve seen bc I don’t speak Japanese but. My guess from first seeing this game is that our good buddy Wonder and the gang are acting because they’re inspired by the PTs and this is like, a few years post-P5. The reason for the hero motif instead of the thief motif is because they see the PTs as heroes and are imitating them.

Honestly I think it would be so funny if that is what it is. Can you imagine? You see these Phantom Thieves of Hearts on the news, really changing things and taking down shitty people in power, and then after like a year and a half they go silent... and then suddenly now you have the power to do that?? How do you even react to that?

And then the hero vibe, too! You make a great point that if they do know of the Phantom Thieves, and see them as heroes, that'd for sure explain why the new cast's outfits seem a little more hero-y rather than thief-y. It'd certainly be interesting if the new cast went in already having an idea of what they can do with this weird world and their new power of Persona, even if they don't know how to do it yet! Would mix things up a bit from previous Persona games too, and give a reason for why they made this P5 X instead of just like, Persona 6.