HI. I REALLY LIKED READING P5R CAGED. COULD YOU TALK MORE ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS ABT MARUKI'S DYNAMIC AND CODEPENDENCY ON AZATHOTH IM REALLY INTERESTED
im so glad to be asked this because ive thought abt this so so much......... thank you very very much for reading caged btw !!!!!!! it really means a lot <3
but aaaagh. the bond maruki forms with azathoth kind of makes me crazy and insane. ive thought a lot about how there's so many awful implications behind it all, how azathoth was there for years and maruki had no idea until the events of the mementos arc when he finally revealed himself to him. it's very fascinating to me how much azathoth seems to make his more direct appearances around maruki in times where he's in distress, especially in moments where he's lamenting his utter powerlessness and lack of autonomy the world keeps forcing upon him...... something about how azathoth appears primarily in these specific moments has always read to me as him preying on maruki's vulnerabilities, priming him to become his vessel, the extension of him without ever truly saying that. the repressed memory with rumi is so haunting to me because maruki has these migraines clearly caused by azathoth but doesn't know why, he has this voice that speaks to him but he doesn't know why, he gains this sudden ability that shouldn't be available to him but he doesn't know why, and that's the recurring pattern with azathoth. he doesn't know why this is happening, but he goes along with it, because if maruki doesn't have azathoth by his side, he will become utterly powerless, he will become the normal person that cannot do anything again, all because he's been deceived by azathoth, by the entire world, by himself into thinking that this, all of what he's working towards is his completely honest and true desire.
azathoth granting maruki his power has always felt like him being goaded into believing that he needs to commit suicide for things to be right. because that's the nature of maruki's reality, it's a place in which he can finally die after taking in the world's evils and burdens and becoming the singular worst person that can never be happy. while maruki can command azathoth and in some cases uses him as an extension of himself (which i really love how much this adds to his own horrors in terms of how he leans very hard into dehumanizing himself, with this being when it becomes most explicit/literal), it always feels like azathoth is the one in control because he is the very reason maruki can accomplish any of this to begin with. maruki is the obedient dog who is always having his leash passed around for the next person to use him as they wish, and azathoth is one of the primary holders of that metaphorical leash........ maybe that's the simplest way i can put it.
i also like how much azathoth feels like he enables a lot of maruki's self harming behaviors beyond just the suicidal tendencies, if i can be kind of insane here and allude to my aroace trans man reading i have of this guy..... i've always liked how much azathoth enables maruki's motherhood horrors especially with his tentacles, in which maruki is not only turning himself into the holy mother of the entire world in an effort to forcibly degender himself (it was Always interesting to me how much he acts in a more maternal way rather than a paternal one, something that becomes insane when thinking about how much he doesn't actually want any of this), azathoth allows this to go further w/ his tendrils, which maruki gets shown using against other people in order to soothe them and put them to rest a same way a mother would do with her child. notably the only time this doesn't hold up is when used against himself, in which it feels a lot more like an sa allegory. But i digress.
there's always something very horrifying to me about the way maruki engages with azathoth onscreen even though they dont get that much screentime together in that way. watching maruki be approached by him in his memory of 12/24 is so horrifying, he doesn't know or understand what's happening but merely accepts it and embraces this as what should and must become his true nature. the first phase of his boss fight involves him being heavily guarded and defended by azathoth, and once downed, maruki slowly starts unraveling, he cant stand the fact that he's lost what he believes has finally granted him his autonomy and uses all of his willpower to bring him back (which is like. hello. Insane codependent behavior). all of this leading up to him being allegorically sa'd by his own persona and having his personhood erased does not feel normal, in a good way. but it feels like the natural progression of all of these little implications, all of these little hints we get of their dynamic that are never told directly to you, that you just have to pick up on. theyre like my second or third favorite dynamic ever in this game. i hope maruki never encounters him again.
