#junham

Okay so Junham is the best Persona ship, like, out of all of them I think, and I'm pretty sure the entire reason I feel like that is A), it's so casual and generally undramatic? After Junpei gets a little bonk on the head for being sexist him and Kotone immediately become ride or die, which is quite literally never a bad dynamic. It also helps that Junpei treats Kotone like a normal person- because he's a best friend in a Persona game, they could have written his treatment of her to be gross and perverted and they just! Don't!

We were all there on July 7th! We all saw what could have happened! But nothing inherently stems from it, because Junpei respects Kotone too much for that!

Meanwhile on Kotone's side, we start getting into why she solos Makoto. Sorry not sorry. But the fact that she has social links with all of the members of SEES instead of just the ones she can romance goes a long way. (Don't bring up the extra scenes from Reload I haven't seen them so they aren't factor in my argument) Because unlike Makoto, Kotone meaningfully bonding with all of the members of SEES gives an actual narrative reason for people to have her as a leader beyond her just Being Special. They like her. She likes them. Even if the group is littered with people who have deep, personal and bitter clashes, every single one of them likes and respects Kotone.

And, more interesting to me in regards to the three protagonists that can Social Link the whole party, while Soji and Akira get occasional chances to point at a girl in the party they're interested in, Kotone can keep with a pretty consistent narrative that she loves Junpei very much- to the point where regardless of if I'm actually writing a Junham fic or not, that is how I write her, and it's something that she can confess to Rio, Yuko and even Yukari iirc.

Which makes the fact that she's the only protagonist who can romantically fail all the more potent.

Like yeah there's nuances of flags with the boys, but no matter what, Kotone will never successfully romance Junpei, and that matters a lot.

I know narratively it's because of Chidori- they couldn't really just delete her from the story and the idea of Junpei falling in love with another girl and his grief over her is both important to the plot and his overall arc, and that doesn't really vibe if he's also supposed to be dating the protagonist. But the fact that Kotone can spend the better part of the game pining only to fail makes her feel more like a character than the wish-fulfillment wafers that her contemporaries are.

Also the Junpei confession scene is just so good. The fact that it's something he handles so tactfully and maturely goes miles for the kind of guy he's become over the story. And, I think it's telling that the way he rejects Kotone isn't a 'no', it's a 'we have a lot going on right now. Maybe we can leave the door open for when we're both ready for it?'

And that's good! In theory that's a great place to leave things for them. Like, yeah, there won't be a good time for them, not ever, but they don't know that yet.

This is all a rather long winded way of saying, in fandom I love Junham because they inherently play off each other in a satisfying way, and while I wish Kotone could romance Junpei in the conventional way, it's so important that she can't, and ultimately ends up with a more interesting dynamic and story for it.

This is also to say that I'm an advocate for failure. I genuinely do think more of the protagonists should have characters they can narratively show interest in but will never be able to romance.