part 1 of a p5x theory post
All of my theories, properly typed out so i don't spam p5x chat with them again.
I plan to cover White Mask Wonder, Lufel's identity, the timeloop, and connections to P2. Spoilers for P5X abound, especially for 4.7.1 and 5.0 onwards.
Gotta start with how I believe Wonder is characterized. Well, he doesn't fit the typical Wild Card archetype. He can talk on his own, and have his own interests. He lived in Zoshigaya for his entire life before P5X. He can only hold 3 Personas. His Synergies do not have arcana associated with them. The list goes on.
The whole thing with living there before and his ability to speak on his own will be talked more about during the rant about P2 connections, but theres still plenty to discuss. This is surely poorly formatted, but please read it through.
He's quite nerdy, as we can see in his time in Akihabara, the fact he listens to Miku (Miku event + opening shows him listening to her songs), gaming, capsule collection, and his crane game habit. He does like to play games of chance, as shown by his common use of the capsule machines, willingness to learn Tycoon from Ashiya, and in the P3 event theres a dialogue choice of "I play them all the time" (or something along those lines) about the crane games.
He's also a bit of a glutton. He cooks for himself, and almost every synergy includes a scene of going out to eat - even the main story does. When you go out for ramen with Shun and Shoki at the start of Arc 4, Shun comments on how he clearly knows good v bad ramen thanks to his typical food habits. In Kira's synergy, Wonder can ask for seconds when they go to the diner, and Kira says something like "That's to be expected from you." He seems to enjoy eating a lot.
He seems to enjoy astronomy, given the observatory in Ikebukuro.
Thats a majority of the strictly lighthearted traits I've observed. Of course, this is all my own interpertation.
I also believe he's depressed. Why? Well, for starters, look at how he acts at the start of the game. Sure, its a loss of desire, but he didn't even regain all of his - he awakened by regaining his will to live. And the simple implication of that is worrying. Then, he's been living on his own, in a timeloop, without his parents or anyone there to truly care for him (before you come at me "But he has Tomiyama!", shes just a concerned neighbor. He keeps himself too distanced for her to actually help at all.) When the girls block the hallway, he can't even work up the courage to ask them to move out the way. When Manaka jumps, he WANTS to help out, but can't bring himself to do it. And that sounds like a depression symptom to me. After he awakens, Katayama and Motoha both mention how much less lethargic he was, suggesting that he was in a worse place than even others who lost their desire were. His reaction to visions is also a red flag. After the one before Akashi's bossfight, the one of him attacking Riko, Lufel notes how worried and stressed he looked, and that he should just rest before their fight. Lufel almost always notices after he had a vision, noting how worried he looks afterwards. Once he begins remembering these loops, that compounds it. They seem to be chock-full of traumatic moments. Ambitions and Visions also has a line that strikes me as odd - "Act like I don't care / Why even bother / That's what I thought then / Just another bluffer" For a song that's about Nagisa, it seems to reference how he would be a bystander to everything.
He also holds a type of distance from his friends. This isn't really fleshed out, but unless they're part of the team, his Synergies all seem to remain calling him "Kamishiro-kun", even at Rank 20 (Tomiyama aside). I'm not sure if this holds true for every Synergy, as i've only maxed Ashiya's and Kira's so far.
He's very trusting, allowing multiple adults into his life (and dating them!) along with trusting Aran to not reveal them as the Phantom Thieves when she finds out. This can very easily be used against him.
Finally, some observations, to close out the characterization part of this essay. He's much less flashy than Joker in the Metaverse, his body language is very closed in. He's pretty sassy in the Real World, and acts much like a normal teen boy. When Shoki is surrounded by girls, he says "Wish that were me..." If Shimotsuna's assessment is to be believed, he's canonically a pretty boy, with Motoha commenting on it as well. He seems to like fashion, being the only MC where you can select outfits, and Tomiyama's Synergy having benefits for that.
Now, on to the theories portion of this.
I believe White Mask Wonder (Shortened to WMW) is Nyarlathotep.
Now, I do have evidence! Please don't kill me yet!
First, there's the first cutscene with him. It's Joker in Sae's palace, then theres a glitching effect (!!!), and he's then ambushed by WMW.
Let's analyze this scene by scene. First, the glitching. This seems to signify where the main reality meets the P5X reality, as we see it when Nagisa visits Leblanć, the Crossroads of Fate events, and when WMW appears again in 4.7.1. Clearly, WMW has some connection to this reality bending phenomena. We've only really seen that from those with godly powers, like how Maruki altered reality with help from Yaldabaoth.
Next, they give us a close-up of his eyes. This one is a bit of a stretch, but he DOES use a different model then Nagisa, so this could easily be intentional. His eyes do not have the white diamond pupils like Nagisa, and notably, are pure red. Nagisa's are more dark red, with a brownish tint to them imo. Shadows in Persona 2 have these pure red eyes. Compound that with everything else, its very possible this could be a Shadow in that way, or Nyarlathotep himself.
Joker then proceeds to slash his mask in two, with no reprecussions on WMW. If it were a true Persona mask, a result of his Thief outfit, then I assume it wouldn't break that easily (or else that would've happened plenty of times before) and it would have more consequences for the person that its attached to. However, it does not. That's odd. Very. So it is very unlikely it is actually tied to a Persona, yet he still wears the Thief outfit. That strikes me as odd, in of itself.
Then, WMW seems to seal away Joker's Persona. That's really, really bad. The only things that can do that are directly tied to Nyarlathotep, like the Holy Spear. Again, this requires god level power, but this seems to be tied to a specific one - The Crawling Chaos.
In 4.7.1, theres a short cutscene where WMW replaces Igor and Merope in the Velvet Room - neither of them notice, and that glitch effect is present again.
pt2 will cover: magatsukami, the timeloop, kaidols.
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
gamechangershow
2087
