Not To Mention This Bit.

Moze, Jiaoqiu, Fexiao! (Yes, all three, fight me)

Ruan Mei & (the) Herta!

I wish Ryuji Sakamoto was right.

The two characters I thought of immediately:

i love when a character has something terrible happen to them and as a result they see themself as, essentially if not literally, a ghost. and so that means they only can (and have to) do what ghosts do, ie get revenge and then cease to exist. easy as that. but then halfway through this ghost vengeance they realize hey actually i might still be a human person. with human needs. that’s incredibly inconvenient, considering how much i’ve invested in this whole ghost thing

Quick rant about Akiren, because I see many different interpretations of him (some I agree with, some I don't) but one that I don't see very often is this.

Yes, he loves his friends and cares for them. But imagine this- his home life was very uneventful, and considering how his family doesn't bother to reach out after his arrest, I'd imagine they see him as a lost cause. They gave up, or his worth is conditional. They love him conditionally. Being raised like that affects you as a person, and I like to imagine that after Igor told him that he now has to fill the role of a hero preventing ruin, and his bonds with people give him the strength he needs to do so, he embraces it. He embraces feeling important and valued, being admired, being the protagonist. Suddenly he has the world on his shoulders, and these people look up to him and admire and love him for it. Every dialogue response he chooses is his own thoughts, but he chooses what gives him more points. What people want to hear. He helps people so they look up to him, because he loves the attention and filling the role of the hero.

Especially since he's not very expressive, and he's nominated as the leader just because he fills the role the best. He embraces attention but he rejects vulnerability. It really feels like he cares for the image of a leader. It takes him a long time to see his role as anything other than the hero he loves being. I would say around Futaba's palace is when he starts to truly care for the Thieves, which is why by the Casino arc he chooses to protect their identities and risk his lives for them. He does eventually come to care for them, but he's supposed to be a leader. He's important suddenly. Playing the leader is selfish, but as the same time, as the leader he doesn't GET to be selfish. Playing the hero means he has to be empathetic, and that's where the selfishness lies. The intentions. Only once he risks his life for them does his true heroism shine. It's not about people relying on him, it's about him protecting them.

It's even better because after Futaba's palace when he fully starts to care, Morgana leaves and their decision to save Morgana is purely because they value their team. Morgana is his friend, so they must protect him. It's not a prerequisite of heroism to put aside their goals for Morgana.

And this interpretation makes 2/2 even more interesting, because he's given the opportunity to get the one thing he wished for. He can make the selfish choice. Doing so would give up not only his hero role, but also would betray and abandon everyone he cares about. 2/2 is like a checkpoint where he remembers how the Thieves formed and how at some point, his priorities shifted from being the protagonist and hero admired by all, to wanting to protect the people close to him. He has to reconcile with why. He has to think "It's not about me being selfish for once by taking Maruki's deal, it's about the fact that I care for these people and I don't want to hurt and betray them."

So yeah, I love this interpretation of Akiren Kurumiya and I would love to see more of this, please and thank you.

Ratiorine!

Ships from Persona 5, Twisted Wonderland, Honkai Star Rail, and Bungo Stray Dogs welcome. Do ask!

@checkerstheboard I love you very much and I'm very glad to have you as my fiance ❤️

Realized something so funny about Yusuke while playing Strikers.

1. He suggests that the Phantom Thieves go to Kyoto on their vacation because he really wants an art tour, and he immediately gets vetoed. They then plan a barbecue, and he gets excited for that but then plans change when the Metaverse returns and they go on their road trip, so he gets deprived of that too. But every single time their vacation gets brought up he acts like these things are going to happen. "What about our Kyoto excursion" "our barbecue extravaganza" he is in his own little world where the Thieves listen to him. They actually do eventually go to Kyoto and he STILL doesn't get his art tour.

2. Zenkichi tells them that Alice Hiiragi went to the same school as the Thieves and Yusuke pipes up like "SHE WENT TO KOSEI HIGH??" Even though he is the only member of the Thieves who didn't go to Shujin Academy.

3. The scene where they discuss how they're going to go on their road trip without a vehicle and he announces that he has money like it's HIS MOMENT. Like it's the moment he's been waiting for his whole life, and Futaba responds "keep your snack money, Inari". Later he makes a comment about how he's gone from "rags to riches".

Every single case of this he gets the dramatic cut-in thing, so what I'm saying is Yusuke is convinced he's the main character through all of Strikers. Like he goes through the motions assuming the world will bend at his whimsy and the other Thieves just sigh and move on.