#p5 stuff

Those present try to push Akechi away from him, when the affects seem to linger, and Akechi himself at first assumes this is the case as well.

They assume that the way Joker is looking around frantically is because he's still sure Akechi is "after him."

Except when Crow loses patience and slaps him out of it with a clawed hand and everyone (aside from Sumire) expects the worst, Joker doesn't freak out and run.

No, he relaxes and instantly, sheepishly, starts to calm down.

Akechi brings it up again when he self-destructively tries to push Akira away by reminding him of it, saying "a part of you is still scared of me, don't deny it-" only for that to make Akira laugh, angry.

He isn't scared OF Akechi. He isn't saying he never had been - it was terrifying, potentially facing death while powerless. But no.

When he's hit by Fear, the worst thing it dredges up is how he felt after Futaba said she couldn't find his signal, that he'd just heard Akechi die behind a barrier he couldn't get past.

It's the worst possible thing for Akechi to hear. It scares him, that trying to push Akira away won't work, that Maruki has his life as such a high value bargaining chip in Joker's eyes and Joker doesn't even know it, and it scares him in general that someone might actually care about him so much.

It means that Akechi outright knows that on 2/2 he's forcing Akira to create another new worst memory of losing him again.

Titled thus because I was just going through the scene right after Mementos merges with reality, after they've failed to defeat the grail, and "Igor" tells Akira that he's lost the game.

And I'm like, ok, I've seen this a fair few times before. I know the script.

But then I was paying attention, and I just went WAIT WAIT WAIT HANG ON A MINUTE HERE.

"In accordance to the game's rules, the defeated must pay a price."

"Your life is forfeit."

"I sentence you to be executed."

And I was just... hang on. There's been more than one player in the game. If we go back to the earlier lines, "Igor" also says "You were mean to bring change to mankind, but it seems that was too much for you."

In a sense, all of this could also be applied to Goro Akechi.

Akechi was also forcing mankind to react and to change, albeit via chaos and uncertainty rather than encouraging people to stand on their own two feet the way the Phantom Thieves were trying to.

And what happens in the engine room?

Akechi loses the game.

He realises that Akira and the PT fooled him, and when he tries to get the better of them one last time, he fails. We often talk about how after he was defeated he "almost went over to their side" - but isn't that another aspect of his "defeat" in Yaldabaoth's eyes? Akechi admits, effectively, that he accepts the Phantom Thieves' way of doing things over his own.

And it's here that we get Cognitive Akechi, who comes in and starts talking about how the Captain (Shido) sees him, gives him an option to rejoin (or for the PT to switch sides), and.... hm, isn't that familiar?

Here's Caroline saying "If that's what our master wishes..." with Akira having a response tree of-

-"You're going to execute me?" -"Are you serious?" -or just plain being unable to speak (he could also be unspeakably angry, but he seems far more scared than angry, here).

Next, Akira refuses to die, because he has people relying on him.

I'm reminded of how with Akechi, once he's behind that bulkhead door, if you haven't finished his confidant he'll say something to the effect of "So my final enemy is a puppet of myself, how fitting."

If you have maxed his confidant? You get Joker telling him he can't die yet, as he has a promise to fulfil ("I'll hold onto your glove") with the implication that it's something that Akechi can use as motivation to want to keep living.

In both, it's "I can't die, I have a reason to live, and that reason is at least one other person."

When the twin wardens try to "execute" Akira, now in his Joker attire as his will of rebellion has manifested, Justine says "If our master orders so... then it cannot be helped..."

I'm reminded of how Cognitive Akechi was a being of pure servitude toward his Captain (master), Shido. If the Captain willed it, he'd even die for him.

This one feels similar, because the twins were never supposed to have "execution" as part of their duties at all, and both parties were pushed into a sense of unfailing loyalty to someone who never cared for them, and who warped their duties to something wrong.

In fact, I just went back to confirm the lines for Cognitive Akechi, and-

Yup.

Top is Cognitive Akechi saying "Captain Shido's orders... He has no need for losers." and the lower one is "Igor" saying "You have lost the game."

Basically, the same lines.

To the point that...

Cognitive Akechi: "Here, I'll give you one last chance. Shoot them."

God of Control: "I shall grant you an opportunity to make a deal with me."

Both times, it's clear that this is the wrong thing to do, and in both cases, the person being offered rejects said deal entirely - Akechi by shooting the switch to activate the bulkhead door, making it impossible for his cognitive self to attack the Phantom Thieves, and Akira by denying Yaldabaoth and reaffirming his bonds with the Thieves once he's told that they're also there.

I titled the post the way I did, because the way Shido is used by Yaldabaoth, I would not be surprised if Cognitive Akechi isn't just a product of Shido's mind protecting him against threats from, say, his own attack dog, but also?

This is Yaldabaoth's way to quite literally execute the first piece he started to play with, since Goro Akechi had failed as a Trickster and had "lost the game" - and as he and cognitive Akechi both say, losers end up dead.

So the question is - who really killed Akechi? Was it Shido's cognition? Was it Yaldabaoth? And was that cognition even an original part of Shido's palace in the first place, to that extent? How much was it "appropriated" at the "right" time, here?

There are far too many coincidences for me to pass it off as such

But the highlight for me at least, is this:

In both terms of Akira and Akechi's "executions," it's their sense of thinking and feeling that "I can't die, I have a reason to live, and that reason is at least one other person" that keeps them alive. And to the point, it's what keeps Akira's sense of rebellion so strong, and against nigh insurmountable odds.

Before that, though? All bets are off.

Violence! Betrayal! Gunplay! Beating the actual shit out of each other! Being each other's worst nightmare!

Akechi, whose phone - for SOME REASON - has Akira as his emergency contact.

Cue Akira being convinced that because they're having to do actual surgery or something, he's only just found out that Akechi is still alive only to lose him again.

Akechi, however, wakes up from the anaesthetic, groggy and feeling like a stupid piece of shit, only to see the distraught (if he didn't know better he'd say that's what someone looks like when they've been crying at someone's bedside but that can't possibly be right-) form of Akira.

It's all rather awkward. And needlessly dramatic. But they're both keeping that in because Akira can't punch his rival when it might tear his stitches or something, and Akechi can't move much or get too angry or the nurses come running.

Akira told him sometime during third semester that he'd had feelings since they first met, so when Akechi finds himself back there he just thinks he's dreaming. One of those rare good ones where it lets him do things just a little differently - but instead of "Wakaba's Shadow kills me because I hesitated too long" or "I try and kill Shido instead of trying (in vain) to get his approval," it's "I get to play out my fantasies of being with the boy I like before everything went wrong."

So, of course, he acts things out well enough, and he makes some excuse to get Akira alone because even in a strangely realistic dream he's not comfortable being that open with his affections, and then, with Akira not knowing what's going on, kisses the hell out of him like he's wanted to for a while and Akira told him he'd wanted to, and-

And then he's got startled grey eyes looking at him like he's grown two heads, looking at him like he's a complete stranger, and he Isn't Waking Up.

And Akira's saying something to the effect of how he's hardly complaining but he has no idea where that came from, all nerves and- yeah, there it is, a fair bit of the thrill-seeker Akechi knows. (And loves.)

Akechi runs, because the dream isn't ending and consequences like questions over what that even meant, only for him to keep realising over and over that this... isn't a dream. At all.

He's back in time and he's just kissed Akira in a way neither of them are about to forget, and- if "I'd like to keep debating with you" hadn't sounded like a pick-up line the first time around, the way he stumbles through asking - all the while internally cringing, feeling sure that he's wrecked his chances already - at this point certainly does now.

The second miracle in as many days is that Akira doesn't reject him. He's not left hanging.

Morgana is Hope, right? In a metaphorical and not-so-metaphorical way.

Morgana (Hope) is not there when Akira is just arriving in Tokyo. Akira sees nothing to look forward to about his probation.

When Akira first meets Morgana (Hope), it's very transactional. "You get me out, I'll help you." Akira can see something good, here - but it's all in the give and take. He doesn't dare put his trust in this small thing. Things have gone wrong before, so there have to be safety nets.

When Morgana (Hope) is gone during the early Okumura arc, Akira can't do anything he usually does. He gets depressed. Everything he looks at, he can only think of "when Morgana (Hope) was here."

When Akira is in the hands of the police after being ambushed in Sae's Palace, Morgana (Hope) is not with him. It is one of the few times they are separated, and no matter how he is portrayed either by himself or by others (as a cocky, self-assured rebel), it is one of the most traumatic moments of the entire game for him. Akira would have had moments when he feared (had no Hope) that their plan would not work.

When he defeats Yaldabaoth and Morgana (Hope) disappears, that is when Akira gets either rearrested, or he sees Akechi get arrested in his place. Either way, not a happy, fun time. Regardless of who he spends the rest of Christmas with, it's a period of uncertainty.

During the first week of January, Morgana (Hope) is not existing in his true form. Akira has Akechi, but is kept at a distance. He has to remind his friends about their pain. The only future he has to look forward to is one where they have pain and trauma again.

On February 2nd, when Maruki comes into Leblanc, Morgana (Hope) is there. But when Maruki brings Akechi into things? When Akira starts to realise that Akechi might not be alive? Morgana (Hope!!!) leaves the room. To give them some space. To deal with their emotions.

In the true reality, the remaining Phantom Thieves start to have Hope again once they have Morgana back.

And what does Akira never lose sight of? The Hope that Akechi might not be dead, and can still fulfil their promise.

Akechi is one of those ones who doesn't seem to have any problems with it, which irritates Akira to no end - because it reminds him of how little he seems to value his own life.

But then Akira uses one himself, and- it's... okay. Not pleasant, but no more or less than tearing a mask off his face had been.

Only, he looks around for Akechi and can't find him anywhere.

Akechi had been watching, had seen Akira put a gun to his head, gone through the motions of shooting himself in the head, and had even somewhat recoiled from it as if it were real - and for Akechi, his mind had filled in the blanks from memory, of the very real consequences; the blank eyes, the blood, the complete lack of response, the many, many people talking and needing him to talk about the Leader's "suicide"- and he had to walk away and hope that he could save face by looking like he was still unaffected, when he actually only made it out of sight before he feels like throwing up.