Spoilery as all heck

Maruki and Shido are meant to be mirrors of each other, with Shido being honest about his selfishness for taking over Japan, and Maruki deluding himself and others into believing his goals are for everyone’s benefit. Goro is to Shido as Ren is to Maruki–they are both boys kept under their thumb and unwillingly dragged into these men’s machinations. Please recognize this.

You have to advance Maruki’s Confidant in order to secure the third semester–which means that, like Goro was to Shido, the player has no choice but to get involved with this man because the devs wanted you to see the mirrored themes in their behavior and further sympathize with Goro’s position.

Happy Science is still an active cult today, and they have released several anime about their beliefs. They believe in a “God of the Earth” known as El-Cantare. In the anime, El-Cantare looks like this:

Huh, that looks kind of similar to–

Which means… ‘hardship’

I love the art and content this fandom has made but I feel like aspects of his personality are sometimes left out (perhaps due to preference of what people like to create about, which is fair).

Mostly - his rage. His spite, yes, but on the other hand his determination and willpower, his burning angry desire to succeed and survive. I’ve seen some ‘yandere’-ish content (not my personal cup of tea but, yknow) but I rarely see him truly, genuinely enraged.

Goro can be kind and pleasant, he can be sad and melancholy and lost in his thoughts, he can be upset and despair at his situation, and he can be smugly sly - but he also is fucking PISSED

Any time his convictions are laid bare, he doesn’t hesitate to be angry. He explains his “selfish motivations” with fire and vitriol, and when he confronts the party later he’s angry and fired up to SUCCEED, even if he’s had his thoughts and emotions twisted, he’s full of a raw anger and energy that he MUST win, full of anger about what he is in comparison to others, full of rage towards his father and his own emotions. It seems that his anger boils up with his energy - once he’s beaten he calms down, even if he’s still hoarsely shouting about his situation. But he has this immense rage and conviction towards whatever stands in his way - Shido, the Thieves, Joker, even himself, and the cognitive double that threatens him and everyone. (And it’s not to say he can’t filter his rage into a more controlled form, like his resolve against his clone in the rank 10 scene.)

He is full of fire and rage and willpower. His personas should express that - a symbol of rebellious justice that the angry poor saw as a hero against the corrupt rich, a god of chaos and rebel against the gods who dared to oppose his kin (and whose ultimate fate is to tear free of his painful, poisonous binds and battle the gods at the end of the world.)