MINDSCAPE

30 day persona challenge ;

day 12: character you’d bring home to your parents

yes i had to include that particular screenshot.

although i said i would be primarily approaching this from a purely platonic ‘would not be hesitant about introducing this person to my parents’ standpoint, i also definitely would not be opposed to dating kou, soooooooo

i guess it applies in both scenarios.

in the end, it’s really only my mom’s approval that he has to pass, because my dad is much less judgmental about this stuff ( or, rather, he’s equally judgmental, but he’s less inclined to impose his judgments on me ). this is somewhat difficult, as my mom finds fault with pretty much anyone very easily. ( to be fair, i inherited this from her also. )

but there are things, especially about guys in particular, that she prefers, and kou happens to meet all of those criteria:

good-looking, but not too feminine. while kou is definitely on the pretty side, he’s clearly a guy. idk what my mom’s deal is about “boys who don’t look like boys” but she has some sort of bias against effeminate looking men. she has this whole thing about how men should look like men and all that. which like honestly whatever. give me my pretty boys any day of the week. the fact that kou does The Sport and clearly has a body built from that helps offset his pretty face. probably.

outgoing, approachable, and easy-going. this is probably his biggest point in my mom’s eyes. she doesn’t like guys that are very introverted. even if they’re bookish, they have to socialize well and comfortably. or else she thinks they’re, idk, too secretive or not friendly enough, or she can’t tell what they’re thinking and therefore they might have a propensity for having a mental problem. ( this is literally stuff she’s said to me before don’t even ask. ) thankfully, kou is not at all reclusive. he wears his heart on his sleeve and isn’t afraid to be gregarious, open, and amicable. she’d really, really like that he’s an extrovert.

sports. this ties in with my mom’s whole idea of what is approvingly masculine. it’s not a necessity, but definitely a point in his favor that he’s like, into normal and healthy boy stuff like basketball, idk.

that being said, he’s a jock but he’s clearly not dumb. he does well  academically too. she’d definitely approve that he’s a pretty well-balanced guy who excels in a sport but also isn’t a bad student.

there’s a chinese adjective that is used to describe people: 善良 ( shàn liáng ), which my mom usually translates to ‘pure’, but which literally means “good and honest; kind” or just “having a good heart”. it sort of combines the idea of having a good heart with the implication of being “virtuous” as well. his thoughts and feelings and actions are all very genuine, and he doesn’t really have a bad bone in his body. he’s A Boy, sure, but he’s also sweet and has a bit of that boyish effervescence about him. she definitely finds that kind of personality to be a strong plus because, again, there’s no worries of ulterior motives or hiding things.

the fact that he comes from a traditional, conservative family is also a plus because my mom is very conservative and also a fan of tradition. she tends to favor the sort of “old-fashioned” ways of doing things, socio-culturally, and looks favorably on someone who is either somewhat traditional in the way they act or has been brought up that way. even if it results in some semi-awkward social situations, she errs on the side of being more forgiving than if it was due to someone being too liberal.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 11: character you’d become best friends with

this challenge proved a bit difficult not because i couldn’t figure out who i’d become closest to, but because it was hard to figure out who i’d befriend in the first place. it’s rather difficult for me to make friends, especially ones that i’d feel close to. case in point: i’ve only made a grand total of 2 close irl friends since i left high school -- that is, in the last 6 years. ( and one of them was made for me by my parents lmao. ) a lot of that has to do with the fact that the vast majority of people don’t interest me. and if you don’t make a first impression that makes me want to befriend you, there’s no way my INFJ ass is going to expend the social energy to try for the sake of trying. we need a hefty amount of buy-in to incentivize us to even begin to invest. in other words, we have to be sure there’s at least a 65% chance that this will be worth our time and energy or else you’re not getting the time of day from us.

that said, whoever i’d befriend has to have something about them that’d interest me. most of the time, it’s a shared passion. yusuke checks off on this because even though his niche is drawing / painting, he definitely seems like he’d be into art in general, as long as it is something that speaks to the side of him that longs for meaning.

this is something we definitely share. while i’m a writer, i’m interested in art in any medium as long as it stimulates my N, the part of me that says fuck it to the everyday sensory stuff and wants to constantly look beyond, into the ‘what does it mean’. i probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as adept as yusuke at pulling that out of visual art, but we would share the same interest in the purpose of art as a window into life and the experiences of people. both of us very, very actively use art ( me, written, and him, visual ) to understand and explore life’s intricacies. in the same way that one might use a GPS to navigate and orient themselves to their surroundings on a drive, art is the tool that we use to navigate and make sense of life.

for both of us, art is not just something to be created to make others happy, or even to make us happy. it’s a prism that we hold up to the world and which we try to make refract life into something we can see.

obviously i’m very passionate about this lmao. i would love to talk to yusuke about this for hours.

it’s yusuke’s extremely strong NF that allows him to reach that kind of depth of meaning that few people do. he is constantly up in the stratosphere, thinking about why, for what reason, to what end, what does it mean. much like i am. getting the two of us to be practical about real-life things is like trying to make a flying unicorn made of rainbows do your taxes. i love other people who can achieve that level of philosophical and existential depth. that’s where i thrive, and it’s clearly where he does too.

we’re both also clearly introverts, though he’s a bit more open to being social than i am. while i think we would both thrive in a quiet setting, each doing our own thing, sitting in companionative silence, his focus on visual art is always pulling him out into the world around him. which is probably good for me because it means there’s someone who’s like “the art museum has a fantastic exhibit on xyz that is absolutely stunning i want to see it let’s go see it together” and i’ll actually come out of my bedroom once in a blue moon.

basically, hanging out with him would be really fun. because we’re both introverts, i wouldn’t feel pressed to be fun. since he’s such a fucking weirdo, i also wouldn’t feel the need to adjust myself to be more palatable. i think we’d just kind of jive off of each other, even if his bizarreness is a little embarrassing sometimes.

there would probably be a good deal of “o- okay. you just— ...okay. yusuke. i’m just gonna— ... move. over here. not associated with you— yep. you just... keep doing you, man.”

30 day persona challenge ;

day 10: favorite arcana

THIS WAS REALLY HARD. i went through a crazy revolving door of my 3 top choices and i think i cycled through putting up images of all three of them before finally making a call lmao orz ( for the record, my 1 and 2 are still very close. )

i think ultimately, though i like the meaning of my second choice better, i like the way my first choice is executed in the games better. ultimately, fortune comes through very powerfully within the persona games, and the way the characters embody fortune is always quite profound. by comparison, my second choice doesn’t come across in its characters as impactfully, with one exception.

so with the portrayal of the arcana being foremost among my criteria, it came down in the end to this. it’s quite funny because, objectively, fortune’s message is very straightforward and simplistic. 

fortune embodies luck, fate, chance, and opportunity. characters of the fortune arcana usually attempt to seize their own destiny in response to what fate and life have thrown them (Wiki).

all of the fortune characters meet this criteria in some way, and what i really enjoy about how fortune is executed is that, even though this formula is, as i said before, pretty simplistic, each iteration is on a different scale. some are pretty basic ( usually these are the hella periphery slinks ) such as keisuke and chihaya, where the character’s life has been decided by another person or institution ( keisuke feels like he can’t escape his father’s disapproval, and chihaya feels like her contract to the businessman is inescapable ). but sometimes the embodiment of oppressive fate is grander, like social standards / institutions ( naoto ). in p3p, fate seems even more insurmountable; ryoji is so overcome by the gravity of who he is and what his role in creation is that he sees no other option than to resign himself.

in each story, the character fights back against this ‘inescapable fate’ in different ways. sometimes we get happy endings, like keisuke and chihaya, who manage to escape from what’s binding them and make their own decisions. sometimes the ending is mixed, because what’s constraining the person isn’t one individual, but something much larger. but even in the face of that, naoto seizes that opportunity to make the decision about how they are going to define themselves and move forward, even in the face of continuing oppression. and ryoji, despite knowing the hopelessness of fighting fate, doesn’t let his own window of opportunity slide by, either. his act of defiance -- giving femc the choice ( fitting, given that fortune also governs choice alongside fate ) of how to die -- is arguably the most meaningful of them all. it also contributes to one of the game’s big themes: that the end may be the same ( we all die ), but we can make choices along the way that make differences.

fascinatingly, there is one other character that ascribes to the fortune arcana, and it’s the inclusion of this character that also helped tipped fortune into the #1 spot. though he is not a social link; his persona is of the fortune arcana. and that is sakaki takaya.

he also fits the fortune arc perfectly, but his is not the happy-ending, self-actualization story that the other fortune characters get ( to varying degrees ). fate dealt him the hand of oppression too; he was an orphan, unable to escape becoming part of the experiment that changes and determines the rest of his life. because of that experiment, he has this power that will one day kill him. he, too, decides to fight against fate by seizing his destiny with his own hands. he breaks out jin and chidori in an act of rebellion and then he has to make the choice of how he is going to define himself. he decides ( possibly? ) that what matters to him is this power of being able to harness a persona, and the way that sets him apart from everyone else.

the choices he makes ultimately set him on the path to becoming the game’s antagonist, but, p3′s poor narrative execution of takaya aside, he had the makings to become the tragic hero, much in the vein of akechi. he certainly saw himself as the protagonist, and so did the person who followed him. the game just didn’t develop him enough to get him there.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 9: favorite dungeon

this challenge was really, really hard, because i ended up with two top choices, and i couldn’t for the life of me decide which one i wanted to pick in the end. but because i can only choose one, i finally chose to go with the hollow forest, but in truth i can’t even call my second place ‘second place’ because they’re extremely close, if not outright tied.

the hollow forest stands out to me as, narratively, p4′s best dungeon, and one of the best dungeons for narrative in both p4 and p5. perhaps it’s because it was not included as part of the original story plot, it does not feel like just another dungeon that you have to go through as part of the game plot to collect all your party members and whatever else it is the plot centers around ( solving the mystery, sticking it to The Man ). there is actually a reason to go into this in the story aside from ‘it’s the next part of the plot’. 

however, i would also argue that this is an impressive point of the hollow forest. often, with dungeons that are not directly plot-related, it is easy for them to feel like add-ons or shoe-horned in, particularly in the case of hollow forest where it was not part of the first game. it’s very easy to feel like they add nothing to the story and are only there for additional content for players who want more to do. but despite being an added feature, the hollow forest fits seamlessly into the narrative of p4. it doesn’t feel like ‘why is this related’ or like a branch-off; i felt like it was important to the story that we rescue marie.

which takes me to the next reason why the dungeon is my favorite; of all of them, it demonstrates and contributes directly to character development very well. i already talked in an earlier post about marie’s situation. she is unique in the fact that her social link -- where the bulk of persona’s character development usually occurs -- is actually the setup, and her dungeon -- which is usually the setup for characters -- is where the development happens. it was a lot to ask of a single dungeon, but the hollow forest accomplished it well. she struggles with identity, self-hatred, and isolation throughout the floors of the dungeon, and it is resolved in the boss fight. despite that, the development doesn’t feel rushed or campy; in fact, as i mentioned before, her boss fight and the scenes before and after it are some of my favorite in the game.

in addition to narrative and contribution to character, the dungeon’s aesthetic is also one of my favorites. i love the way it looks; i fell in love with its soft, dreamy appearance as soon as i stepped inside. the dungeon’s visuals imparted an atmosphere of loneliness, fading, longing, and memory almost immediately. i just loved that everything was blanketed in a layer of fog that, despite the role of fog in the game, was unthreatening despite the way it limited visibility. it felt instead almost comforting, and conveyed the peace, rather than fear, that marie felt accepting her isolation and suicide, even if there was also sadness. the soft whites and earthy browns also created a lulling, pleasing visual. there was nothing visually jarring or stand-out, again imparting a serene feeling upon the player as they progressed. and of course the misty pieces of inaba that marie visited throughout her social link being littered around the fringes of the scenery evoke heart-wrenching emotion. you could just imagine marie walking around her own dungeon, coming across the abstract recreation of the beef stand, and pausing to reflect sadly on the memories she’d shared with the MC and his friends there.

adding to that was the music, which is also one of my favorite tracks in the persona series. the memory track is absolutely gorgeous, and effectively captures the melancholy, longing state of nostalgia and regret that marie feels. the seamless combination of the visuals, the music, and her voice drifting across the background every now and then, all came together to present a dungeon that felt, to all the senses, permeated by marie’s soul.

finally, and this is the particular place where the hollow forest just barely edged out into first place, i love how the mechanics specific to the hollow forest also contributed to its atmosphere and symbolism. first of all, if i remember correctly, there aren’t really shadows just roaming around much in the dungeon, but they typically appear when you cut the ropes leading to different parts of the floor. unlike in other dungeons though, they are not visible beyond the barrier, but just appear occasionally as random encounters. i can’t really explain why this made an impression on me ( other than being annoying bc they were unavoidable ) but i think it added to the dream-like quality of the place since you couldn’t see the threats in front of you.

secondly, you lost all your equipment and weapons upon entering the dungeon, and could only equip what you found scattered in treasure chests throughout the dungeon. emblematically, all the default weapons your party had were “imitation --- ”, so yuu had his imitation katana, but naoto had an imitation gun, yukiko an imitation fan, etc. this highlighted the dungeon’s theme of identity always being questioned, things not being what they seemed, and the sense of unease and fear that comes with not knowing if you can believe what you thought you knew. the equipment you got throughout the dungeon also interestingly granted no stat bonuses like regular armor, but gave elemental immunity. these, along with the various SP-regen items you would find in chests, seemed like little lanterns of hope within the overall sense of melancholy and isolation, like small indications that marie was actually calling for help and in fact wanted you all to succeed and save her.

and finally, the dungeon’s iconic mechanic: SP being halved after every battle. i actually really loved how this mechanic ended up playing out for me. what happened was that the game would take however much SP you had at the end of each battle, and halve it afterwards. this sounds terrifying, and it kind of was in the sense that your entire party was constantly at low SP ( like, under 30 per person ). as this dungeon comes late in the game, the player is not used to feeling like they’re strapped for SP, especially if they’ve been grabbing cups from shuffle time and/or making use of the fox. it feels suffocating, like you’re trapped. you feel panicked because you’re afraid you might be left completely helpless against the monsters.

this is exactly the feeling that marie feels. trapped. suffocated by a situation she has no control over. like she’s on the verge of being overwhelmed by invisible demons.

and yet. as mentioned before, the dungeon is scattered with SP-regen items in its treasure chests. you get a bunch of these, easily enough to equip all your characters with at least the low-level ones, if not some of your more SP-heavy fighters with the ones that recover 8 or even 16 SP per turn. coupled with invigorate 3 on naoto and even MC if you’re prepared, this means that the reality is you will almost never use more SP than you regen in a turn. what this all leads to is the feeling that you’re constantly in danger of hitting rock bottom, but there’s always that bit of something that keeps you from getting there. you’re never completely done for. it just feels like it. and for them to work that extremely powerful message -- not only about mental health, but life in general -- into the mechanics of how the dungeon plays is very masterful.

i already talked a bunch in another post about how amazing the boss fight for the dungeon is, so i won’t recap that again. but it is easily my favorite boss fight in p4 as well, possibly in all of persona. the hollow forest was an incredible breath of fresh air in the midst of persona 4′s otherwise average narrative and character. it really felt like a diamond in the rough.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 8: favorite persona

while i would have loved to talk just about which design i think looked coolest, that would not have made for a very interesting post, so instead i went for a mix of cool design and hella symbolism, and aigis’ persona palladion > athena won out as numero uno.

the greatest thing i think her persona does is follow the trajectory of her own character development, both in design and in concept. palladion is very mechanical looking, and its attacks are robotic; it either charges head-forward at the opponent for physical attacks, or its head detaches to reveal a... firing cannon...? idk. for buffs. this represents aigis’ still-robotic state. later, when she realizes her purpose in life and begins to struggle with human emotions and existentialism, it evolves into athena, who is much more humanoid looking and also moves more organically: throwing a spear, etc. it lacks the robotic elements of palladion, marking aigis coming into her own humanity.

in concept, too, it matches. palladion is, mythologically, athena’s shield. it is an object designed to serve a purpose of protection. ( aigis -- or aegis -- is also meant to be a piece of armor worn by athena / the gods, and is also the word for the protective shield that surrounds mt. olympus. either way, it’s clearly symbolic of the gods’ protection. ) this is, of course, aigis’ narrative at the start: she sees herself as existing solely to protect humanity from shadows and to protect the mc, specifically. 

by the end, she evolves from being just a shield -- a lifeless object with a singular, mechanical purpose -- to being a feeling, living creature. like the greek god she turns into, she takes on flaws and personality. and, like athena, she continues to personify warfare and combat ( athena being the goddess of war is very fitting for aigis’ continued narrative role ), meaning that she doesn’t lose the functional part of her identity even as she grows into something more than just that.

an interesting side note! palladion takes its name from the daughter of triton that athena accidentally killed: pallas ( which is also where her title comes from ), and i think it’s supposed to be the soul of pallas that acts as her shield and protects her? something like that. so athena literally shoulders the embodiment of her guilt for this act she committed, turning it into a purpose. in the same vein, aigis continues to shoulder the guilt for sealing ryoji into the mc, unconsciously seeking him out even when she doesn’t remember that exact act at the beginning, and continuing to try and protect them to make up for what she did to them as a child. 

so symbolically, aigis’ persona is compelling. i also like its design. i always enjoy greek myth in particular, and the look of the persona is nice and put together without being as traditional as, say, caesar ( akihiko’s upgraded persona ). i like that it keeps the same color scheme as aigis, so when she summons it in game, everything looks nice and matchy-matchy on the eyes.

honorable mentions: konohana sakuya > amaterasu ( yukiko ), hermes > trismegistus ( junpei ), penthesilea > artemisia ( mitsuru ). these are p much all purely based on aesthetic design. they generally lack the symbolic effectiveness of aigis’, which is why she ranks top even tho some of these i like the look of better.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 7: character you have the most in common with

this one was kind of hard at first, because i don’t see myself as being very much like any single persona character; rather, i could see different aspects of myself in various people. so i was sitting there riffling through like everyone i could think of — until i thought of marie. and then it was kind of like oh. yup. yeah, this is it.

i didn’t really feel a kindred spirit with her throughout most of p4g, actually. through her social links, only a few of her traits are shown: she’s a tsundere, she is socially awkward due to being too blunt and not knowing how human relationships work, and she’s struggling to find her own identity through her lost memories. 

i’m definitely tsundere in some ways but not to the same extent as her, i’m pretty socially savvy despite being bad at verbal expression, and i’ve never suffered from memory loss nor have i ever really experienced an identity crisis before. so it seems initially strange that i would consider her the persona character i most relate to. but where the connections start is later in the game, and most from the hollow forest dungeon, where imo 90% of her best characterization ( and like a hefty chunk of p4g’s good writing ) happens.

we’re shown early on that marie expresses herself through writing — particularly through poetry. this is a major ping for me because that is also how i express myself. from the content of her poetry, it’s very clear that this is her outlet; it’s the one medium where she feels she can pour her thoughts and emotions, and where they can take shape in a way that allows her explore and understand them outside of her own head. this is extremely relatable to me. additionally, snippets of her poetry can be heard as you progress through the hollow forest dungeon, and she also has moments in the game where she just speaks lines of poetry verbally while you’re with her, indicating that poetry is a natural way of expression for her. it’s the medium through which her emotions naturally flow, and to which she naturally turns. this is also super relatable.

her poetry is also like, super edgy and 13 year old ‘my soul is a dark abyss’ to the point where it definitely makes me cringe but that’s mostly because it’s like i’m seeing my own middle school poetry in it aaaahhhh.

the second big thing that made me feel connected to her was the entire hollow forest sequence herself. she locks herself away from the people she most cares about because of a perceived incurable flaw in herself ( admittedly, her situation is not as simple as a character flaw that she thinks makes her unlovable; it’s like she’s literally the container for what’s destroying the world lmao so definitely understandable ). and, when said people come after her to rescue her from her own loneliness and suicide, she pushes them away, questions why they keep trying to help her in a manner meant to deflect them ( i.e. attacking and denying the relationships she has with them because she knows it’ll hurt and drive them away ), and literally lashes out at them in an attempt to make them stop.

her boss fight is definitely by far the best and most emotional in the game. the first stage of it is already powerful; the animation of her 3D model as well as the voiced lines during the fight convey very well her desperation to push you away as well as her pain. during the second half of the fight, not only is her shadow incarnation hella gorgeous, its design reflecting her anguish, but even the mechanics of the fight represent her emotions, such as when she wraps her cloak entirely around herself and reflects all incoming attacks, physically shutting herself away from the rest of the party and withdrawing so that nothing can get through to her.

let’s just say that kind of self-imposed solitude because of helplessness and that kind of all-consuming despair, and the self-sabotaging and downright vicious rejection of everything that could help you, due to something you perceive is unchangeable and irredeemable about yourself? is... yeah. it was honestly the one part of p4g that really made me somber, really pulled at my heartstrings and got me to think. a large part of it is because the whole dungeon was just done really well, but i’d probably be lying if i said some part of it wasn’t because i understood. it was like watching myself, in a lot of ways.

and let’s admit it, marie is definitely how tsundere 13 year old me was. or at least as tsundere as i wanted to be except that i was too socially conscious.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 6: character who would probably be your rival

first of all: SOMEONE SCREENSHOTTED HIS KEK LINE. help.

yuuki shows up for his second appearance in this challenge less than a week in haha. i had a gut feeling it would be him, but i checked out the rest of the casts and there wasn’t anyone else who’d even really be considered. a large part of the reason for this is that i don’t really develop rivalries with people easily, or really at all. for me to have a rivalry requires very specific circumstances that are not often met:

the person has to be into an activity that i’m also into and said activity has to have a quality measurement to it. ( like if we’re both into reading books, that wouldn’t be a rivalry, obviously. you can’t really be better or worse at reading. )

they have to be relatively on my level of skill. this is usually the one that doesn’t get met because the line is very fine, mostly because i have a very low opinion of my abilities and i tend to assume everyone else is much better than i am. i tend to default immediately to being intimidated. this is the main reason why, despite futaba and i being into similar things, i would never consider her a rival because LMAO measuring up to global professional hacker?? not even on the same level.

i have to actually somewhat like the person, at least enough to be okay talking to them. if the above criteria are met but they’re just someone i don’t even like, i won’t even bother giving them the emotional energy.

yuuki almost doesn’t even hit #2 because even if he is “the butt of p5″ in many ways, he is quite accomplished at tech, able to build, maintain, and popularize his own website. that’s like some shit i couldn’t even hope to reach, so i almost wouldn’t even try to compare. 

but the area i think we’d come closest to being rivals is probably in gaming. it’s already non-explicit canon that he’s a gamer, too. he clearly played WoW, and i’d bet he’d be into a lot of other online MMOs and probably mobile gacha games too. i tend to get rather competitive about these because i like to believe i’m actually decently good at these types of games. he also seems like someone who’d be into the min-maxing and the fluency with meta that comes with wanting to be “competitive” at these games. i definitely imagine he’d be someone that puts a lot of time and effort into mastering this type of gameplay so that he can show that he’s good at something, since he has such an inferiority complex carried over from real life.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 5: least favorite social link

oh my poor, poor hopes and dreams. my ideals and expectations... how sadly i watched them fly out the window. when i was originally looking into p4g and the differences it had from p4, the addition of the adachi social link was one of the big points of interests i had in p4g. i was really intrigued and excited by the idea of adding the antagonist as a social link, and was looking forward to the kind of insight the game would give us into his character with this addition. i was hoping it would add depth to him, tell us more about who he was as a person, and flesh out his character so that the moment leading up to his reveal and defeat would be that much more impactful, because we as the audience ( and yuu as the character ) would have gotten to know him and gotten attached to him.

well, that’s what the game tried to do. it failed hopelessly.

the game was trying to go for yuu getting attached to adachi and forging such a strong bond with him that he would be reluctant to accept the truth. this is clear in the added scene if you choose to go talk to him alone ( ostensibly to try and appeal to him one last time on the basis of your relationship ) and in the added accomplice ending, where yuu can’t bring himself to sell adachi out because he can’t accept the idea of a close friend being such a villain. 

these would all be great and moving moments, if the game had actually done a good job of making us / yuu feel attached to him through his social link. but it doesn’t. it falls flat on its face and rolls 300 feet down an incline before crashing into a dumpster heap.

first off, you only get 6 actual ranks with him, for... some reason. i’m not sure why they felt the need to make half the social link optional and half of it progress through plot, considering that after you discover he’s the murderer, you confront and apprehend him very quickly after that. i could get behind it if they saved the rank 10, or maybe just rank 9 and 10 at most, for plot, maybe when you confront him in the TV world and then after you defeat him. but 4 whole ranks? that just took away from time they could have used to develop him more before he became the antagonist. 6 ranks is hardly enough time for yuu and the player to get feasibly attached enough to adachi to make the accomplice ending believable.

on top of that, those 6 ranks are abysmal. they do extremely little, next to nothing, to enhance his character and give us a deeper look into who he is, or in any way foster a player attachment to him. i wanted to like him and become fascinated with him, and i wasn’t. not through his social link. instead, the social link is a bunch of scenes that have no relevance to really anything, and don’t develop anything -- not the narrative, not his character. the plot thread with the old lady who seemingly mistakes him for her son but then it turns out that she knew he wasn’t her son all along in the end and... i guess... was just being nice to him?? idk?? goes nowhere. adachi doesn’t learn anything from it; it doesn’t impart any message to the player. we’re left equally as baffled as adachi, and then he shrugs it off like “ok i guess she was just weird” and we’re like ??? what was the point of that??

then there are some scenes where he comes over to your house and i guess jokes around with you and nanako a bit. i guess this is supposed to make us like him because it shows he’s silly and laid-back, and make us think he’s a pretty good guy, but some magic tricks and a slew of bad puns are hardly enough to foster any emotional attachment, and half the aforementioned qualities are already shown through the game’s plot, anyway. 

what glimpses of character we get are hidden in subtle one-liners, which are never delved into or expanded upon. he tosses out little hints of possible depth, not only within his social link scenes, but also throughout the plot and during his final confrontation: about how he’s disillusioned with the world and has developed a nihilistic worldview due to the hardship he’s gone through ( “you don’t know all the shit i’ve been through!” or something. but then we never learn what that is???? ). he hints at past struggles: a strict childhood where he was only allowed to focus on his studies and excel at school, then succeeding and getting into the police academy, only to be sent to some backwater place. he hints at corporate power abuse that he can’t fight against, frustration with a world that has gone to shit and that he wants to remake ( he talks about how he used to have hopes and dreams like yuu, but the world destroys that ). 

these are all really interesting and important character points, but the game just tosses them out in one-liners and lets them drift away. it never expands on them. it’s almost like the devs were scared to nurture a complex antagonist and, the moment there was any inkling of that, they backpedaled hardcore and reverted adachi back to the cardboard cutout boring psychopath villain who does bad things just... because. this ends up sending the player hella mixed messages. i know character depth is hiding in there, atlus, you cowards!

30 day persona challenge ;

day 4: favorite social link

pretty much no competition. i looked through the rest mostly for formality, but none of them held a candle to p3p’s moon. to be honest, it’s very hard to put into words why shinjiro’s social link is so, so good. much of it has to be experienced and simply felt, acknowledged and understood wordlessly. this is the nature of his entire role within the game, too. to have to explain why shinjiro is so well-done cheapens the meaning and the impact. but i’ll do my best.

personal narrative arc.

a lot of shinjiro’s development within the game is shown, not stated. ( sometimes it’s a little too subtle — not usually a complaint i have — such as his reasons for rejoining SEES. that whole process was rather clumsily implemented, as there was no indication of his relationship with ken beforehand, the decision felt very sudden, and there was no unpacking of it anytime afterward, either. but this isn’t what i’m here to talk about. )

this is very much the case within his social link too, and it’s done masterfully. he never really says anything about feeling closer to you, true to character, as the link goes on, but he shows it in the way he talks to you, in what he talks to you about. one of my favorite things is the fact that, in rank 1, he talks about the first time he and aki got into a fight and says “we were kids. i forgot why.” then, all the way in his rank 10, he finally tells you the story of that first fight. it’s something meaningful to him, and he didn’t forget why; he just didn’t trust you enough at rank 1 to open up about something that a.) shows a side of him he isn’t comfortable showing you yet ( of course it turns out to be a story that shows he’s a Good Egg ) and b.) is a poignant moment for him in a relationship that he treasures. but the game shows you that, by rank 10, he feels close enough to you to tell you.

his social link is also the development of his own relationship with SEES, mirroring his growing relationship with femc. he starts out only talking about aki in his rank 1 and 2: asking femc if he’s eating okay, if he’s fighting well, etc. because of course aki is his only tie to SEES. he’s otherwise an outsider if not for him. shinjiro is a guy that holds the world at arm’s length — ostensibly to protect them from him, but also partially to protect himself from himself — and one of the things i do really like about his entire narrative is that that aspect of him never really changes. more about that later.*

BUT regardless, he does become a little closer to everyone else. by rank 3, he’s asking about the rest of the team, too. rank 4, he’s going out of his way to help fuuka to cook. rank 6 is the climax of his social link where he makes that dinner for everyone, wanting to see everyone happy, wanting to contribute something to the group and, most importantly, give them something to remember him by. the fact that he loves the group enough at that point to even want them to have a fond memory of him shows how much he’s changed and opened up. in my characterization of him, i think he’s an INFJ, and trust me that’s a Big Demonstration for an INFJ. we don’t bother putting in that much emotional effort if we haven’t fully invested in the relationship.

*returning to this now. this is the other big thing i love about how shinjiro is written. i’m kind of cheating here because this isn’t just in his social link, but throughout his appearances in the plot. for all i just babbled about how he grows and comes to trust and care about SEES, he... also doesn’t. he continues to keep his distance, never gets fully emotionally attached, continues to see himself as the outsider, the one who’s never really completely part of the team or welcome, despite other people’s attempts to show him otherwise. ( see: rank 7 when he talks about everyone badgering him about making more food and therefore trying to make him feel included, and him griping about it. ) even with the femc, even when you romance him, he continues to try and keep you at arm’s length.

this is super important because it keeps his development within character. he doesn’t have an inspirational revelation and feel like a suddenly different guy at the end of his social link. he makes meaningful connections but that doesn’t completely override and defeat the internal struggle that defines him and gives him so much of his depth. it makes his arc therefore feel organic and realistic.

and finally, on the subject of organic and realistic, his romance route is one of the most seamlessly executed in the persona games. ( it’s definitely one of the reasons i ship it so hard. ) shoe-horned / awkwardly executed romance options are not a persona-specific issue; fire emblem suffers from it, and i think any game that tries to implement romance options for the mc would suffer from it. but so often in persona, the final romance route option always feels at least a little bit sudden. like you had this great platonic bond going and the character is coming to self-actualization and all this character development and then it’s like oh yeah also you can romance them and uh yes they’re suddenly in love with you or ready to reciprocate your love.

shinjiro’s romance is worked into the rest of his social link. there’s hints of it scattered throughout his dialogue. he’s evidently in love with femc regardless of whether you choose to get that extra last scene with him or stop at rank 10. i’m not saying that every romance option should be written this way, necessarily, since that would run the risk of harem writing, but it was a big part of what made the shinjiro romance route very believable. it didn’t feel sudden or shoe-horned for the sake of making him a lovers option; it felt like a natural culmination of the emotions that had already been building up.

incredible writing

the social link also boasts very strong writing technique on both the global and local levels. i’ll address the global first. one of my favorite things about what they did with shinjiro’s social link is what i like to call “the hemingway effect” because he used it prominently. this is when you write a story, a scene, etc. with something — a narrative fact, an off-screen event, whatever — influencing the story, but you never tell your audience what that “something” is. i think hemingway called it the iceberg effect, but w/e. that “something” then ends up pervading the mood and atmosphere of the story, coloring it, but is never given voice. this leads to really emotionally powerful writing, and, in my opinion, very believable characterization. why? because you don’t know what most people in real life are going through when you meet them. you are experiencing them in a snapshot in time, and you’re not going to know all the things that are influencing that particular moment. you can only feel it through how they talk, act, dress, etc., and guess. but you likely will never find out, or at least not for some time.

this is exactly how shinjiro’s social link is written, except of course we’re privy to the “something” that informs his entire link, but not until rank 7 obliquely and then rank 9 and 10 much more explicitly: that he is preparing for his own death. suddenly, that realization illuminates — it colors — everything that came before. his remarks about making memories, his concerns for everyone else, the fact that he maintains an emotional distance. it gives us so much insight on his actions and attitudes. the fact that the writers decided to incorporate it using “the hemingway / iceberg effect” for much of his link really heightens the emotional impact of his social link.

in addition, on the topic of global writing, i love that you learn a little bit more about him in every rank. and not just a little more, but something new. very often, persona social links only build on one aspect of a character, one main issue or trope that they’re struggling with. and the social link chronicles the journey of their development through said issue. but arguably because they didn’t do that with shinjiro, didn’t feel pressured into developing and resolving The One Struggle, they instead had the flexibility to showcase different sides of him, which made him feel like a real, multi-faceted person that was slowly being revealed to you piece by piece. usually, the rank 1 ( and sometimes 2 ) of any social link is a baseline; it establishes how the character is naturally. for characters also central to the plot, this can often feel redundant. but with shinjiro, they were unpacking new sides of him right off the bat.

rank 1 gives you a little bit of insight into his and aki’s relationship, up until this point only teased in their joint plot scenes but never expanded on. rank 2 adds to that and shows you one of his values: that he believes in taking care of oneself, especially in relation to diet. rank 3 shows you that he cares a lot about other people and thinks about others a lot. rank 4 shows you that he’s a fantastic cook and also expands more on his thoughtful, altruistic, and tsundere personality. it also gives good insight on how he talks to and around other people who aren’t aki. i can keep going, but you get the picture. each rank doesn’t just rehash the same things we already know about him; it builds upon what we know, adds more depth, and adds new sides of him. nicely done.

secondly, the local writing is also very well-done, by which i mean the small details like the dialogue. in particular, his rank 9 scene is quite possibly my favorite social link scene in all the scenes i have seen in the persona games i’ve played ( i’ll admit i haven’t maxed all social links / confidants, so that’s a qualifier, but ). overall, i think persona 3 boasts strong narration, which is a very small thing to look at, but is important. 

> You talked to Shinjiro about many different subjects...

> Shinjiro's expression doesn't change much, as usual...

> However, for some reason...

> ...He seems lonesome.

i’m usually on the fence about narration in games because it, by nature, relies on telling rather than showing, but of course due to the limitations of animation, it’s sometimes necessary. and this is one of the times it’s done very well. telling without being heavy-handed and in-your-face. and then, possibly my favorite line in his whole social link: 

Shinjiro: Are you done? C'mon, tell me more. Encore, encore!

that one line says so much about his mentality in this moment in time. how much he loves femc ( because he’s in love with her regardless of whether you romance him, fight me ), how desperately he wants to hold onto happy memories of her, how desperately he wants her to remember him and their last moments together happily, and how much he’s willing to go against his own reticent and reclusive nature to ensure that. it also gives light to the more playful side of shinjiro that we’ve glimpsed a little here and there scattered throughout his earlier scenes ( “Tell 'em they need to eat better. They won't listen if it comes from me. Especially Aki...”; “...There's so much wrong here, I don't know where to begin...”; “...Even if it tastes awful, you better be responsible and tell everyone it's great.”; “Nah, stay put. It's way too crowded over here. 'Sides, we're trying to keep it a secret.” ). and because we’ve caught glimpses earlier, this doesn’t feel suddenly out of character; it feels like a natural opening-up, a side of you he’s willing to show around you now because he trusts you.

and of course, the heavy hinting that he gives in regards to what’s going to happen to him, without outright saying it or seeming like he’s trying to push it in femc’s face. that’s a tricky moment to write, because you want it to be clear to the audience, but you don’t want the character to talk like he’s trying to make it clear to the audience. you want him to talk like he would naturally talk — in shinjiro’s case, reserved, conflicted ( even contradictory ), introspective, and philosophical. the writers pulled it off very well. i adore that they accomplished it through core aspects of his personality, namely his tendency to send mixed, perplexing messages when he’s in a melancholy or existential mood ( super INFJ, by the way ):

Shinjiro: You look best when you laugh. ..... So don't cry, got it...?

Shinjiro: I gotta make sure I don't leave anything behind... No doubts, no regrets... .....

Shinjiro: ..... I keep telling you what to forget and what to remember... What to want and to not want... I'm... selfish, aren't I?

Shinjiro: ..... ...Hey. As long as I'm already being selfish, I want you to do one more thing for me. You don't have to forgive me... But forgive everything else... ...You'll understand later. It should be like this for a little longer... I just want it to be... normal...

all without saying so or speaking plainly, he basically tells you he loves you; expresses his anxiety about his own life, its rapidly approaching end, and shows how hard he’s clinging to attempts to exert some control over his last days; and tries to impart his last wish to you while also being self-deprecating and talking in circles around what he actually wants. in true shinjiro fashion, he never clarifies, leaving his message — and all of the emotions and turmoil that define him — up to the femc’s and audience’s intuition and interpretation to understand.

‘nuff said.

relevance to game themes

aigis is the main, big, in-your-face manifestation of p3′s core messages in the sense that she takes the part of the player, in a sense, and we are actively trying to work through the complexity of the game’s themes at the same time that we are watching her do the same. 

shinjiro, however, is the behind-the-curtain manifestation of these same themes. if aigis is telling us what p3 is trying to teach us, he and his story show us. because of this, he is massively thematically important to p3. the game’s big theme is the idea that relationships in life are beautiful and meaningful because they do not last, and, subsequently, that things that are gone continue to have meaning even if they’re not here anymore. the narrative of shinjiro’s social link embodies this, from the way he tries to make memories with others so his last days can be happy and normal, to the way he wants others to recall times with him fondly for the same reason. he even outright says it at one point, though too early in the game for the player and femc to connect it to the game’s message:

Shinjiro: Making memories is important. People can go on as long as they have good things to look back on... They'll be able to go on without being led astray...

relationships continue to have impact on us, even after they are gone. and the game uses him to show it to us, too; akihiko continues to talk about shinjiro after he dies, continues to draw strength from him and his final actions ( “he even had the strength to stare death in the face” [ not exact quote ] ), and the femc remembers him and takes strength from him in her final face-off against nyx. he is literally the last voice to lend his support to her. ( and we all know that in jrpg-speak, the last voice is always saved for the most meaningful one amirite. ) he makes a massive and lasting difference on ken, who internalizes the sacrifice shinjiro made for him, the altruism he showed him, and that informs his resolve to stand up to nyx and fight, and to become a better person, someone worthy of the life that shinjiro gave him.

even if we’re not looking beyond his death, his social link is set up to show us that ephemeral things are beautiful. when he makes dinner for all of SEES, it’s written as a powerful bonding moment for the entire group where they can all share in each other’s company and enjoy incredible food. his rank 9 is a very impactful scene where he and femc just spend the entire evening talking about whatever comes to mind, being with each other, sharing that time having fun and telling stories, and even though shinjiro and the player both know it’s going to come to an end, it’s meaningful. 

the game doesn’t have to come out and say it. shinjiro doesn’t have to come out and say it. but his narrative is inextricably tied with the message of p3. ironically, this theme is demonstrated by the man who, if you asked him, probably believes that his life was one devoid of meaning up until that last month with SEES. he likely knows that he spent his life running away, and wasted so much of it. this, of course, is why he makes the decision to come back to SEES, to try and rectify that in a way that he feels is satisfying ( by doing so, he continues to run away from other things, but he’s 17 he can’t be perfect ), and why he tries to impart that final lesson to ken with his death. but i find it beautifully done that, unlike aigis, whose story is more of the traditional happy self-actualization narrative in itself, the power of shinjiro’s narrative is one that can only be seen in the meta-text, when you step back and look at how it fits into everything else.

it’s almost like his personal narrative is redeemed by his narrative role in the game. man, i love that.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 3: character you’d date

in this house we fraternize with death.

lmao in all honesty, this came as something of a surprise to me. but, laying out all the characters who would be candidates and then weighing pros and cons actually had ryoji coming out on top. it’s not what i would have expected, but thinking about it now, it’s not all that unexpected haha.

biggest thing i think is his demeanor. innocent, boyish eagerness is probably the #1 most attractive personality trait a boy can have ( if we’re talking about surface-level traits; obviously honesty and sensitivity and all that are more important if we’re talking about meaningful traits ), and oh man does ryoji have it in spades. my mom calls it being “pure”, and that, coupled with the unembarrassed enthusiasm for one’s partner is a super big plus for him. he’s unafraid to be eager and to express it, even in ways other people would consider over the top or too much. fuckin love that shit. the way he talks? where he’s just so open and transparent about how he feels about you and ugh. so good.

bouncing off of that, the way he talks. Talk About a Romantic. massive plus for him. i’m an Enormous Sucker for romantic people and their romantic words and romantic fucking gestures. i’d probably error 404 around him so bad but goddamn if his flirting isn’t attractive. terrible. “isn’t this river bank where couples sit together?” fucking. “hearing my name from your lips makes it sound so wonderful.” fucking hate this guy.

physical type. let’s just admit it. i’m trash for pretty boys.

another big thing is i feel like even tho i think he’s an extrovert, he has a fair bit of introverted energy, and understands the need for privacy and solitude at times. he seems to really like being in a social environment, but at the same time gets a lot of fulfillment from more private, quiet moments too. so i feel like he’d be okay with like companionative silence or just being homebodies for a while, but also at the same time have enough of a drive to go out and do things and experience things that would also motivate me to get off my butt sometimes. because as much as i would be happy with a full on introvert like me, i know for a fact that it would end up with me not moving from my bed for literal weeks on end bc i would get away with it. so ryoji feels like he would be okay with chilling and not Doing Things for some days ( important for me ), but also once in a while be like “hey this event / thing / place sounds like fun and seems like something you’d like. i know you’re a lazy butt but we should go check it out” and force me out the door once in a while ( which is also important for me, probably ).

just other traits that are really appealing to me in general. he’s very in touch with his emotions and quite a sensitive soul. playful and teasing and just doesn’t mind being silly, which is mega plus bc i’ve kind of figured out that i flirt by teasing. herp. generally very empathetic and communicates with said empathy. this is super important for me bc most guys are over there doing their man pride and everything-is-a-little-bit-of-a-competition and generally Communicating Like Guys Do and ryoji communicates in a more feminine style. he appeals to emotion and emphasizes mutual understanding and harmony. 

on that note, he’s also very direct? like not in the sense of being blunt or not sparing people’s feelings, but in the sense that he states things plainly, for how they are, especially in relation to himself and how he feels. he’s very true to himself and doesn’t really see the need to qualify or apologize for himself. this comes through in how upfront he is with his feelings and also in how forward he is. in addition, for how carefree he can come across, he’s also very serious about his interpersonal relationships. if he chooses to invest, he doesn’t half-ass. he takes his relationship with the MC very seriously, obviously, but he’s also very serious about his friendships with the rest of SEES. no casual flings here for ryoji; he’s too sweet and sensitive of a boy.

also lbr horny on main bf who’s a Trash Boy for his significant other? hella bonus.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 2: least favorite character

bEFORE EVERYONE JUMPS DOWN MY THROAT ( i’m aware he’s a popular character ), lemme explain my criteria for judging how i dislike a character. first off, this isn’t ‘dislike’ in the sense of hating a character. i’m only allowed to choose from main cast + social links, and to be honest, i don’t outright dislike any of those characters from the games. if i was allowed to pick outside that limitation you can bet i would’ve slammed mitsuo kubo into this answer so fast

so, that being said, here’s what i was weighing to determine ‘dislike’:

character role within narrative / quality of character development -- contained within this aspect is consideration of how compelling the character is as well as the depth of their personal arc. this is the most objective criteria.

whether the character is interesting -- similar to the first criteria, but different. more subjective. it is possible for a character to have a good arc, but i may still find them ultimately un-engaging for me personally ( see: kawakami, ebihara, makoto, yukari, soooooo many others ).

my opinion on the character’s personality. this is the most subjective. p much just whether or not i would like them irl.

another important note: i actually ranked less favorably those characters who scored lower on point 1 than those who scored low on point 2. as in, if i do not like a character’s arc or aspects of how they’re written, i dislike that character more than if they’re just uninteresting to me. otherwise, the  answer to this prompt would probably be... idk, politician uncle or death doctor from p5. no offense, but there were a lot of hella boring confidants in p5.

with all that said, here are my reasons for disliking how yosuke is done ( which is different from just hating a character subjectively. i hate mitsuo’s guts. i do not hate yosuke’s guts. )

for being one of the game’s maIN MAIN characters, he is remarkably devoid of meaningful character development. he’s the magician, for crying out loud. arguably second most important arcana after the protag. junpei got incredible character development. even ryuji ( i know he’s chariot but he’s the same niche as junpei and yosuke ), who wasn’t as good as junpei, got some solid development over the narrative. yooosssuukke...? stayed the same. same kid at the end of the game as he was at the beginning. one can argue that his social link showed some personal growth, but i felt like most of it just went over the same stuff each scene ( his struggle with being a bored city boy in inaba, trying to figure out the whole saki thing ) but nothing came of it. he says at the end that he’s reached some kind of inner peace or something, but nothing changes, he doesn’t act any different; it doesn’t seem to mean anything. it felt like a fake resolution, a resolution that was forced into the writing because all rank 10 social link scenes have to resolve something, not because it progressed organically to anything meaningful. these are all issues he struggled with from the start of the game, and which -- i feel like -- never see any real development, rising action, or resolution. give the boy some dang character development.

as a result of the above, he just wasn’t super engaging for me as a character. i couldn’t find any reason to be invested in him. as i’ll go more into below, the Dumbass With a Heart of Gold trope isn’t really my thing, and i felt like that was all he had going for him: being a lovable dork. in addition, i found some of his writing unrealistic, particularly surrounding saki. he’s remarkably okay?? with finding out that this person he super looked up to and thought cared about him and was his good friend actually thought he was really annoying and was just being nice to him because she felt sorry for him?? he only ever mentions this fact as a caveat in his scenes: “i know she felt x” or “even though she felt x”; he doesn’t seem bothered by it?? i have a hard time finding that believable. i have a hard time believing that he just looks right past that massively damaging realization and is all “yeah our entire relationship was a lie lol but she’s still so inspiring to me and gives me strength!” maybe i just don’t understand how that works, but it felt very unreal and immersion breaking.

finally -- and actually least important to my dislike, but since we’re here i might as well -- i just don’t really like him that much, personally. he was kind of endearing in the beginning where he was clearly just some poor bloke who needed to check himself before he wrecked himself, but then he kept really compounding on some of his negative qualities that rubbed me the wrong way. i felt like he was actually pretty thoughtless about other people; there were a few times where one of the characters -- usually chie or yukiko -- protested something or was clearly uncomfortable, and he kept pressuring them. his Trash Boy kind of went too far sometimes in my opinion, and he was.... honestly a jerk at times, like when he signed the girls up for the pageant. he got mad when people would do things in revenge for something he’d done that was actually pretty asshole-y or Not Okay. he’s the first character ( who’s a protagonist ) in the persona games where i frequently was genuinely annoyed, even mad, at his words and actions. and not even in the ‘this is Bad and you shouldn’t be doing this but it’s important to the narrative and your character development’, but just like “what the fuck, man?? why do you have to be such a jackass??” basically, he took the eyeroll-worthy tactlessness and crudeness of his character niche ( junpei, ryuji, etc. ) and took it to a point where he was just an asshole sometimes. believable teenage boy behavior? probably. but definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

30 day persona challenge ;

day 1: favorite character

it is with great irony that i realize my favorite character of the series comes from the same game about which i am thoroughly ambivalent about the entire rest of the cast.

i have an enormous weakness for the Generic Geek person who actually ends up becoming a huge asset to the heroes, even if they’re not out saving the world themselves. i’ve always thought of this role as being a really inspiring and reassuring statement towards not only the fact that the “loser geek” ( which is a label that many of us that frequent the internet and play video games can identify with, to varying extents ) is also capable of making a difference, but also that one does not have to be out there in hero getup fighting the bad guys in order to be a hero. 

i knew i was going to love yuuki the moment he appeared on screen. he’s such an underdog, not only situationally when you meet him, but also socially and thematically throughout the rest of the game ( see: interactions with his grade school bully, him being The Friend Nobody Likes trope to the PT, futaba’s remark on how ordinary and boring he is ), and he is genuinely awkward. not awkward in the cute way that’s endearing, but actually painfully awkward in a way that’s real. he’s too eager about being friends with akira, pushy about his mementos requests, arrogant about his role as the PT’s information broker. he develops an extremely believable hubris that is a direct result of how much he’s been sidelined his entire life and his desperate desire to be something. at the same time, much of this is very internal. externally, he still retains a learned and internalized meekness and timidity in the face of everything that’s bothered him that is So Real. the anger and frustration and need to stand up for himself is festering inside but he can’t bring himself to actualize it when he needs to, which feeds back into his frustration, and that’s realistic. it’s not until his final social links where he begins to work towards having the strength to change that.

however, despite the fact that he is such a flawed and -- let’s face it -- ordinary guy no one would look twice at, he’s the game’s final hero, BUT not in the traditional sense of being the one to fight the final boss and save the world. he’s the game’s hero because he is what makes akira fighting the final boss and saving the world possible. when the PT are fading away from cognition and about to lose, yuuki is the one who remembers. yuuki is the one who rallies the public again and makes them all remember. yuuki’s belief and faith is the reason why the PT can get up again. his faith in akira and the PT is so strong that it gives them the strength to go on. 

some headcanons that came to me that i’ll go ahead and document somewhere so i don’t forget about them ( and so i can see how badly cygames steamrolls all over them when a new DK event comes out / they make aglovale playableeee ):

aglovale is the tallest of the siblings, though only taller than percival by a small margin that’s hardly noticeable unless you stand them next to each other. lamorak is the shortest, and never stopped complaining about it after percival overtook him.

he inherits the gold-blond hair and fair constitution from his father’s side of the family, particularly his paternal grandfather, who had the same blond hair and facial features. in facial structure, however, aglovale resembles his mother the most of the three siblings; it’s softer like hers, and lacks the sharp edges of percival’s face. that does little to make him less intimidating, though...

aglovale also inherited his mother’s frail body and was sickly as a boy. the age difference between him and lamorak is greater than the one between lamorak and percival for this reason. he was constantly bedridden and was seldom able to go anywhere or do anything. any illness would lay him out for weeks, even months at a time. by three years old, he showed little signs of improving, and the doctors pressured his parents to have more children in the event he wouldn’t make it to adulthood. but herzeloyde never gave up on him; his contact with the outdoors was limited, so they installed floor-to-ceiling windows in his room so he could have sunlight and wouldn’t be bored. it was clear even from his earliest years, however, that though his body was weak, he had the sharpest mind and was very capable. in years to come, he would overcome his sickliness partially through sheer force of his own will. the doctors would call it a miracle and he would bask in his mother’s praise of how strong he was. but it was her constant care and faith in him that would stay with him; he would go on in much later years to feel that she was the only one who never gave up on him or abandoned him no matter what. this is why he clings to the hope of seeing her again in his loneliness, as covered in the ending of BFaF.

cont. from previous point: aglovale’s condition stabilized by the time he was about 10 years old. he started insisting on training with the sword and with magic well before then, however, and credits the fortitude he gained from this training for part of his recovery. lamorak was almost 7 at this time and percival was 5. they likely don’t remember much of aglovale’s early condition, but probably dimly recall a pervasive stress that hang over the household during those years, and constant warnings not to bother their brother too much or go into his room. aglovale does not like to discuss this part of his childhood, seeing it as an inborn flaw, albeit one that he had bested.

herzeloyde made each of her sons feel special in different ways, but the fact that aglovale shared her physical frailty as a child was one of the connections he felt with her, as neither lamorak nor percival suffered the same condition. 

though he is now healthy and able-bodied, some remnants of his early weakness had lasting effects. he still tires easily from physical exertion, though he does not admit it. he is an outstanding swordsman and mage both, but prolonged physical activity is liable to exhaust him to the point of being bedridden again. he is careful to avoid this, hence getting other people / his vassals to do the “menial” stuff for him so he can save his energy for tasks only he can undertake. his hair also, though fine, is actually fairly thin and breaks easily. it lacks luster and, without a lot of care, easily looks like straw. it grows very slowly and he has to be careful brushing it because it also falls out easily.

aglovale believes in a machiavellian style of governance. it’s clear that he’s loved by his people, which he believes is good and ideal, but he also is sure to maintain a balance between being loved and being feared. if only able to choose one, he would prefer to be feared so that people don’t dare go against him. experience has shown him that being loved does not necessarily stop others from choosing to harm you.

this is basically canon, but he also ascribes to a logical approach to policy and tasks, and an ends justifies the means mentality. he sees percival’s ideal ( “if i had to choose between saving the mother or the child, i’d try to save both” ) as naive, the mentality of someone who has never been put in that position and so can’t grasp the consequences. although he does not agree with percival’s approach and thinks it will only lead him to ruin, he doesn’t try to stop him, partially because he respects that percival has his own way of doing things, and partially because he’s genuinely curious to see how it works out for him.

that being said, he thinks more highly of percival than he does of lamorak, whom he still loves ( and secretly wishes to make up with ) but sees as being far too carefree and uncontrolled. lamorak left wales ( slash disowned / was disowned ) before aglovale formally took over the lordship ( though he was lord in all but name for a number of years leading up to gahmuret’s death as his father’s health and mental state declined ) and hasn’t been back since. unlike percival, he didn’t even attend their father’s funeral. their falling-out was huge, and both still harbor buried anger as a result of it.

so i was fighting the arena today with my team of eirika, lukas, julia, and delthea ( for the feature bonus; my usual is robin ) and we came up against a cavalry core in the desert map

and i’m going oh shit

cecilia are like terrible bc my only unit who can take her is eirika, and she’s not designed to be offensive. 

eventually with a lot of kiting, i take out reinhardt, eliwood, and luke — in that order — and cecilia is all that’s left, but in order to take out the two reds, i had to put everyone else in range of her

so i’m thinking to myself like all right someone’s going to get sacrificed for this victory. so i’m like kissin’ my blue asses goodbye and she goes after lukas and i’m like aw shite all right lukas is gonna get nuked

he survives. with 5 hp.

( thanks threaten attack. )