#they both have very different definitions of justice. if anything light is more like shido in that they both see themselves as gods

[quietautumn]

this is literally not fucking true if you actually understand a thing about his character other than the fact that he killed people.

[cantfoolajoker]

the phantom thieves as dnd classes

ok as a dnd nerd who likes using class assignments as character study opportunities, im here to assign the thieves to some 5e classes and subclasses.

im putting it under a read more bc it got lengthy when i explained why i picked certain things.

so for starters, akira/ren is def a mastermind rogue imo. mastermind rogues flavor wise focus a lot on the concept of manipulating higher powers like rulers or high ranking members of society for your own cause. in akiren’s case, this falls right into what joker does as a phantom thief. the mastermind subclass over all also gives a lot of tools in order to just plainly not be yourself, which is something akiren also does a lot with how he presents himself.

morgana definitely leans on the side of the more radiant subclasses since he’s the manifestation of the hope of the people, so i pinned him as a divine soul sorcerer because of the innate divine energy resting in someones soul being a fitting description for him. this suits the fact that divine soul is actually a more healing based subclass ala a stereotypical cleric, giving morgana access to healing spells like he does in game, and at that, divine souls actually get an alternate form called the angelic form, which suits morgana having his cat form and his monster cat form. this subclass also references a lot of the people belonging to it are servants of the gods, which morgana is also referred to as. 

i feel like saying ryuji is a barbarian is like the small brain of this, and then i was like maybe a paladin? they do damage and stuff, but then i realized that tempest domain cleric is like right there, and that’s like his bread and butter. now i know what you’re thinking, dont clerics heal?, and let me just tell you cleric is such a versatile class you could have an entire team of clerics and so long as theyre different domains they could all functionally be different. tempest domain clerics focus on outputting dps in the form of lightning based attacks and also are one of the tanky cleric classes with getting martial weapons and heavy armor, so theyre expected to be super dps heavy, which is what ryuji does. usually gods of the tempest domain are patron sea gods that sailors pray to, which fits in with captain kidd and all that. these gods usually represent things like courage too, which is something ryuji has a lot of. also he def uses bludgeoning weapons just saying.

i threw around a bit what ann would be since her weapon doesn’t give much direction other than ranger, but i feel that a light domain cleric would fit her well. like i said in ryuji’s, clerics don’t have to heal constantly, but this gives ann the option of being able to like she does in game. light clerics basically automatically get most of the fire and light based spells in their domain spell list, covering ann’s biased toward fire based attacks as well with spells such as faerie fire, scorching ray, and everyone’s favorite spell fireball. gods representing the light domain promote ideas of renewel/rebirth, truth, and beauty which describe ann and her story pretty well. also it’s a fun contrast against ryuji as they’re the first two human party members.

okay so like i Know samurai fighter is a thing, but i also think yusuke would fit super well as a moon circle druid. druids overall focus a lot on old gods and magic- they’re described as being priests of old faith, which i feel fits yusuke’s traditional theme. moon circles mainly focus on using wildshape and can be very good at both melee dps and at tanking, both of which yusuke does combat wise. plus he’s called inari (the patron god of foxes) by futaba, he’s called fox as a thief nickname, and he wears the kitsune mask as a thief- if anything him Not wildshifting into a fox at this point would just be... well wild.

makoto gave me a headache since like, her fighting style does not translate well between melee punching and having a mount. i threw the idea back and forth with a friend and we agreed that a dex-based paladin multiclassed with a monk would be a good fit for her, since paladins get summon steed as a spell and also focus on the concept of being a justice holy servant while monk gives her the ability to throw actually good punches with a hit die. as for her paladin oath, two fit her very well between oath of the crown and oath of vengeance, with one focusing on upholding justice and society and the other focusing on punishing wrongdoers who step out of line with an iron fist, as both fit different aspects of makoto’s character and her goals. plus the religious undertones of the paladin class regardless mirrors the religious undertones she has as the priestess card and johanna.

so i had the choice of either leaning into being a navigator or letting her do her own thing, and i think futaba would probably be an alchemist artificer- which yes i’m counting since it’s going to be official soon. they’re all intelligence tinkerers with a knack for item analysis and can even create a construct for a companion, which futaba would probably adore if how much she loves cat morgana doesn’t speak its own volumes. they get things like infuse magic and can pull out combinations of concoctions from their alchemy satchel to do random things that range from damage dealing magic attacks like alchemical fire to creating field hazards like smoke stick.

since a lot of haru’s personal story focuses on her family, specifically her grandfather and her father, i feel that ancestral guardian barbarian is a good fit for her. for one she gets her big battle axe, but also it highlights a lot of the cold rage she has that isn’t touched upon, since raging as a barbarian doesn’t always have to be loud and yelling but can be silent and bone chilling too, which fits haru’s anger quite well. ancestral guardians focus a lot on heritage and using that heritage to buff yourself in battle, which falls in line with haru’s connection to her family.

finally nobody can tell me akechi isn’t an archfey warlock, especially one that’s pact of the blade. warlocks make connections with higher powers to get what they want, which whether you look at his relationship with shido or the fact yaldabaoth gave him his powers, he’s a warlock regardless. i picked archfey specifically because i feel akechi embodies a lot of the trickster fey elements over all, but also feylocks are buffers generally, which is a role akechi slots into quite easily. blade wise, a fey blade probably would resemble a toy saber with it being all mystical, which is why i can see him as pact of the blade. also, whether you want to argue he’s a charisma based warlock or an intelligence based one, he has both anyway. i also completely forgot to mention too that archfey’s given spells includes the calm emotions spell, which is just entirely ironic given what loki can do.

bonus: mishima is a valor bard, no i do not take constructive criticism. literally watch the final battle again and tell me he isn’t one. singing about heroes in order to inspire others and literally is the bard with the feat to give inspiration die mid battle? mishima.

[spoofenshmirtz]

hi, sorry, i’m still procrastinating from looming deadlines so i wrote a massive meta piece on akechi. major p5 spoilers under the cut, buds!

as much as i like drawing parallels between light yagami and goro akechi for fun, i definitely think there’s a lot of core differences between them, especially when it comes to why they do what they do.

light is... a piece of shit. he always believed himself to be above everyone else, due to being successful at most anything he set his mind to. when given the power to kill whoever he wanted, he decided to do it simply because he believed he had the right to do so, as someone who’s above everyone else. his straight up god complex may have taken some time to manifest, but him working towards effectively purging humanity of criminals, of anyone who acted against what he perceived as just or good, and seeing his efforts recognized and acknowledged by the general public sent him spiraling downwards in a twisted spiral of false justice. all of this because he had a major superiority complex from the start. the only being above him is ryuk, who makes it clear from the get-go that he’ll only let light live for as long as he’s entertaining; as soon as light loses, ryuk kills him to avoid being confined to watching a sorry bastard spend his time in prison or wherever they’d have put him.

admittedly, it’s been a while since i watched/read death note (although i reread it... sometime last year? for fun) but the fact of the matter is that light suffers from a major superiority complex. he chains himself down to inevitable failure - you can’t go around killing people mysteriously without anyone ever catching you, after all - but he still delights in what he’s doing, bringing “peace” to the world through wicked means.

his twisted morals and god complex don’t change when he’s finally cornered, either. rather, that’s when the extent of it finally shows itself, and in his dying moments, he proves what a selfish piece of shit he’s always been. he saw himself as infallible, invincible, and when he realizes he’s lost, all he can feel is desperation and a wish to live, to survive, to keep carrying on his will as kira. had he never been given the power to control whether people live or die, he may have carried on to use his intellect productively; but because he was given such power, he fell into a god complex so strong he forgot he was mortal.

(light being a total piece of shit is one of the reasons i love death note so much, also. it’s refreshing reading stories about people with twisted morals from their own perspective when you’re used to reading stories with morally good and just people as the protagonists.)

akechi has some similarities to light in that they share some of their morals. akechi, like light, believes people to be rotten from the core and believes, to some extent, that people who are morally unjust and selfish should die. however, a huge difference between the two lies in how they view themselves; where light genuinely believes himself to be above everyone else, bored with other people and willing to manipulate them for his own selfish gains, akechi believes himself to be only barely better than everyone else. or, at least he can be read as such; it may be more appropriate to say that i interpret him as being unable to love himself, viewing himself as a terrible person at his core.

akechi and light both fight desperately to reach their goals. but akechi accepts his defeat, he shows grace and even sacrifices himself at the end for the sake of others, whereas light only grows more desperate until he collapses in death. akechi has the capability to finally accept that he’s been wrong and ends his life (or does he?) in an unselfish action for the phantom thieves. well, i can hardly call it purely unselfish, seeing as i’m sure he partly did it to gain peace with himself in a final act of redemption, but he had nothing to gain from the outcome. when cornered, he was ready to die to let the phantom thieves do what they sought out to do, even though it wasn’t the goal he had been working towards himself.

before being totally cornered, when akechi still believes he has a chance of stopping the phantom thieves, he does make some comments that would indicate he suffers from a similar sense of superiority as light does; however, i don’t think those are his true feelings. akechi, at his core, does not like himself. he never learned to love himself, due to never having any stable relationship with a caretaker after his mother (who probably didn’t have the emotional capability to love him properly, either, considering she ended up taking her own life), and while he may recognize that he’s smart and pretty and knows how to use those traits to his advantage, he never truly viewed himself as special or above anyone else. he says as much, himself, when he’s truly beaten by the phantom thieves; before, he laments that he, who’s so special, doesn’t have what akira does have, and after, he laments that he’s not as special as akira. he wants to be above akira, probably, but he recognizes that he isn’t, and he’s surprised when the phantom thieves admit that he is better than them in many aspects.

the only thing akechi truly believes he has that makes him special is his ability to use personas and turn people psychotic, and his persona-wielding abilities are proven not to be so special after all when he meets the phantom thieves and realizes that they have similar abilities to him, and that akira’s abilities even surpass his. meeting someone who surpasses him in the one field he thought he was special in must have been quite a shock, and why he lashes out at them so horribly; his own self-worth is effectively threatened when he realizes he’s not so special, after all.

light, on the other hand, views himself as truly superior to everyone else, as i’ve mentioned before. light has a true god complex, whereas akechi only recognizes one field in which he’s superior, and is quickly forced to face the fact that he’s not the best in that field when akira comes in.

another very decisive difference lies in their respective attitudes towards other people. akechi, despite recognizing people to be rotten at the core, still seeks their approval and affection in a sick attempt to regain his own self-worth. he’s weak to praise and is definitely chained to shido in part because of this; where others praise him for his good looks or intellect, shido is the only one who recognizes him in the one field he gains his own self-worth from. light, on the other hand, does not care for the opinions of others. it may be a nice ego boost and may further motivate him to carry on his efforts, but he does not value it or even seek it the same way akechi, unfortunately, does.

oh man, this got so long and i spent so much time writing it that i don’t even want to delete it, like i sometimes do when i write ridiculous meta on characters that i doubt anyone would want to read. but it’s nice acknowledging the special relationship i have to death note every now and then, seeing as it’s the first manga i ever got and one of the first anime series i ever followed. i should rewatch it sometime! and maybe develop a really stupid dn/p5 crossover au i might have accidentally started thinking about. yes, akechi has the role of light in said au, but stuff develops very differently.

tl;dr: although akechi and light may share some moral values, light has a major god complex that causes him to flip the fuck out in a selfish fit of desperation when cornered, whereas akechi dislikes himself at his core and concedes in martyrdom when he’s had some sense beaten into him and realizes he can’t win

[jtavington]

In which Phantom Thieves discuss philosophy

"Makoto, how do you feel about meteor showers?"

"Aren't those bad luck?” Sojiro asked.

Akira resisted rolling his eyes. Somehow. "You dated the most brilliant scientist since maybe ever, and you're talking about luck?"

He shrugged. "After how crazy the last few months have been, I'd be crazy not to."

"My friend, you believe bread and wine become flesh and blood. Why not believe in omens and signs as well?"

"Because it's a ridiculous superstition, same with that fortuneteller in Shinjuku.”

"Who hasn't been wrong yet." Morgana sniffed and gave a very catlike glare of superiority. "And we spend half our time in Shido's Palace being turned into rats."

Sae stared at him. "You turn into a rat? An actual rat?" She looked at Makoto who shrugged. "I'll be leaving this out of the report."

Akira leaned towards her. He had made her believe in the Metaverse, and that had saved his life, but now wasn't the same as making her familiar with it, let alone comfortable. It seemed horribly, bitterly unfair that there was a part of his and Makoto's life that she could never fully share. "It's not so different from this world. It has its own rules and laws—psience, if you will—and we had to figure them out or have Morgana teach them to us, same as you would learn about the Doppler effect." He turned around to glare at Morgana. "Which is why meteor showers aren't really bad luck. The Metaverse is a world where thought makes reality, but in this world we are subject to natural forces, with maybe a real, genuine miracle every fifty years or so."

He closed his eyes. "Besides, they're too beautiful to be bad luck," he murmured, too quiet for anyone but Sae and Makoto to hear him. Sae put an arm around him, and he leaned back against the warmth. "Pieces of the universe coming to us." He opened his eyes. "There's one next week, and I wanted to ask Makoto if she wanted to go out and view it. Take our minds off everything."

Makoto's eyes widened. She had never looked more like her sister. "Go? But we're so close to getting the last letter. "

"We'll have it by then. As for the calling card, I think we should wait until the last possible moment." He shifted and kept his gaze fixed resolutely in front of him, anywhere but at Sae. He didn't like to think of her as the cruel, petty master of the Palace and resented those moments when he had to dredge up the person she used to be. "Like last time. We don't want to give Shido any chance to undo his change of heart."

He felt Sae tense. "And then it's my turn. He's a murderer, and he's going to face justice within the bounds of the law. I owe it to both of you to prove the system works. And to Dad." She bowed her head and whispered, "Fair and square in truth this time. I'm not that thing." It was her turn to swallow. "You know, I think I would very much like to see a meteor shower. You can't see anything in Tokyo. She turned to him, almost a little too conversational. "Next week, I believe you said? We'd have to drive out to the country."

His brain stopped as suddenly and thoroughly as a Shadow had encased him in ice. Sae wanted to go for a drive? With him? He imagined the hill outside of his hometown where he had done most of his observations. Sae sitting next to him, her face silvered and her hair practically giving off a light of its own in the star and moonlight. Clutching her gloved hand in the darkness as they watched. It was almost like a date. "I—that is, if it won't interfere with your work or Makoto's cram school?"

"Not at all. I'm done with trying to climb to the top of the SIU pit." She squeezed his hand. "And I expert to explain everything to me.

Just for a moment, Akira felt warm and safe. This was what his life should have been all along: a father figure who cared about him, friends he could argue with without anyone getting seriously hurt, a future before him, and a beautiful woman who definitely liked him and maybe more.