Why do you think Jesus himself hasn't appeared in SMT games? We have implicit depictions such as Messiah in P3 and Agony but no explicit appearances of Jesus Christ. If he does appear what alignment would he be?
*Flashbacksto editing Giant Bomb’s Messiahpage* Oh dear god, too many people thought Messiah did explicitlymean Jesus, because he’s the only messiah they knew. And can’t blame ‘em. Buthe’s just an archetype of the numerous messiahs in religions around the globe.I also don’t know why people think Agony is exclusively a Jesus reference when it’s just part of Kaneko’s tortured souls series of demons; again, Jesuswasn’t the only person to have been crucified!
As why Jesus hasn’t even been hinted at in the series, I’d wager it’s lessabout sensitivity and more because of things like how significant portion ofJesus’ character is defined by non-antagonism or the preaching of dogma. Imean, there are no prophets or founders of religions to be seen in SMT; noMoses, no Mohammad, no Zoroaster, and Gautama barely squeaks inas a persona in P2. Apart from the completely allegorical content ofRevelation, Jesus’ mythological, divine feats are pretty meager compared toother gods’. Walking on water is pretty impressive, but even some of the Norsegods could fly through the air; of course, judging Jesus by his “power” iscompletely missing the point.
Jesus also doesn’t really fit into the Old Testament Law schema they’ve beenusing since MT2. Jesus and Satan as bros? Yeah right. (Unless they want to getall MORMON JESUS on us.) Jesus also evangelizes for a Yahweh whose character hadevolved significantly since the compilation of the Hebrew bible, one who ismuch less concerned about meddling with his creation, apart from the end times.While end times are definitely SMT’s shtick, Revelation’s active combativeroles are filled by demons that already appear: Archangels and Fiends.
Additionally, Jesus’ presence would present something of a paradox. He wouldbe an unquestionably great ally, but it would be a waste not to include him inthe story somehow. Because he’s Jesus, he’d have to be more than just a cameo.But if he were a significant figure, that would probably mean he’d eventually haveto be a boss. Justification for turning Jesus into a boss character wouldlikely be questionable at best; would you be fighting because you disagreed over“turning the other cheek”? I say that aware ofthe universally decent morality at the core of Jesus’ message/ploy for literal beliefin a kingdom and salvation to come. We then cycle back around to the best idea being just to leave him as a bonus demon or something. Otherwise, they could go the TaishangLaojun route with him, but there’s no doubt Jesus would be Law-aligned;therefore, some kind of conflict would be inevitable there, too.
For proof, look at what happened to another messiah, Maitreya, in SMT4A. Hewas reduced to a caricature of himself because of the divine conflicts atthe center of the game’s plot; plus, due to the series’ nature as an RPG, that also meant itwas unavoidable that he would serve as a boss character. The majority of thegame’s references to Maitreya’s actual role and personality ironically featureduring his battle dialogue. Instead of teaching humanity the true dharma, whichwould be boring from a gameplay standpoint, he becomes the left-hand man ofanother god reduced to cartoon villainy. The nadir of Maitreya’s portrayalprobably comes when he fiendishly grasps a 15-year-old girl in a chokehold. Imean, no thanks, I personally wouldn’t want Jesus to be anywhere near thisseries if that’s how they’re going to approach writing other mostly benign religiousfigures going forward, especially “one of their own” like Maitreya (from a culturalstandpoint).
But I think the real reason why there’s been a lack ofmessiahs and Jesus is because it would be redundant. The protagonist isgenerally of the messiah archetype: SMT1’s Hero is certainly treated as such inSMT2; Aleph of course is the most successful implementation of SMT2’s MessiahProject, not to mention other Jesus-like allusions in the story; the Demi-fiendis the one prophesied in the Scriptures of Miroku (Maitreya; big, big hintthere); SMT4/A beat you over the head calling their protagonists messiahs. Whatpurpose would Jesus serve if you’re already wearing his sandals?
