P5 Joker - Blog Posts

Was having colour fun with Akira and then drew the other so he wasn't lonely

I hate, HATE, Akira's trousers

Lighting and no lighting and uh spoilers ig

I had to include the sketch for Joker just because of how goofy it looks

Me when

Me when persona:

ryuji: you guys wanna play uno real quick and i can record it and make that my upload tonight?

akechi: i don’t have uno.

(akira: akechi, fuck off.)

ryuji: EVERYONE has uno, dipshit. it came free with your FUCKING XBOX.

akechi: i didn’t get it. i have the oldest XBOX known to man.

ryuji: NO YOU DON’T, i got mine on DAY ONE, you fucking ‘t***.

akechi: well, mine didn’t have it-

ryuji: YOU HAVE UNNNOOOOOOOO, YOU FUCKING DICK.

akechi: I DON’T HAVE IT, YOU FUCKING-

ryuji: YOU HAVE UNOOOOOOO!!

(akira wheezing in the background)

akechi: I DON’T FUCKING HAVE UNO, MOTHERFUCKER! I DON’T HAVE 2, I DON’T HAVE 3, I DON’T HAVE 4 I DON’T HAVE SIX…

ryuji: GO TO THE ARCADE AND DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKer IT’S A FUCKING CARD GAME THEY DON’T EVEN CHARGE PEOPLE FOR IT

akechi: EIGHT.. NINE, TEN OR ELEVEN-

ryuji: YOU DON’T KNOW A GODDAMN THING IT’S FUCKIN UNNNNOOOOOO IT’S FREE

the saint you were before

made some shrinky charms with my girlfriend today!:3c

(she made us matching shuake charms, so the colored joker is from her!! and i made us matching catboy!jokers 🤠)

a shuake commission for @tzviaariella’s lovely Pirate AU fic, A Brig too Far! I’m such a sucker for classic tarot imagery… and pirates… and these rival losers… Truly kismet ⚔️💖🏴‍☠️

I agree with this completely, but I want to add some things. I think something that I've seen people not realize is that in this framework Maruki has no care for the dead. He never cared about Kasumi, or about the sibling's bond with each other, because if he did he could have just brought Kasumi back or tried even a little bit to understand the underlying truth behind Sumire's grief stricken warped perception of her late sister. Instead, Maruki facilitates what she claims she wants, which is to become this warped perception of her sister. To match the strength she idolized. It's the same with Akechi. Akechi's wishes don't matter, Maruki wants to repay Ren for unintentionally giving him the key to accomplishing his goals, and to an extent he sees himself in Ren. Just like how Maruki didn't attempt to understand the truth behind the bond of the Yoshizawa siblings, he didn't attempt to understand the bond between Ren and Akechi. It's not enough that Akechi is alive and """"happy"""" with Ren, they had a unique dynamic fueled by their experiences, and Maruki's shallow understanding of them and what they "want" could never accurately replicate it. He thinks sanding off Akechi's jaded worldview and trauma will make him easier to love, and we know that's not true. Not to Ren. Akechi's autonomy is not granted to him because it would in Maruki's eyes, defeat the purpose of bringing him back as the perfect companion he thinks Ren always wanted but could never have.

This is a big reason why I have problems with people who claim to love shuake but also believe Maruki is right or prefer the bad ending narrative wise. It's feeding into the same toxicity Maruki does. Maruki doesn't value Akechi individually, he is only present as a ghostly giftwrapped puppet for Ren to love. People tend to fall into the trap that Maruki's reality provides, and that's that "look at this character you have grown attached to. Don't you want them happy?" So they are forced to deal with the cognitive dissonance of safe comfort for the character, or what the character would want. Anyone who claims to love Akechi and Ren together but prefers the bad ending doesn't actually care about the bond they have. It's because they play as Ren and they want his "happiness".

Adding onto this because I've yapped for this long so I might as well, I could apply this to any of the other thieves as well. Someone might spend the entire game wishing for Ann to be happy with Shiho, and then when Maruki provides that of course they would consider accepting the deal. But they seem to forget that the only reason they became attached to Ann in the first place is because of the experiences she went through in the course of the game. The Ann they grew to love is NOT the Ann that has Shiho in Maruki's reality. It's an important distinction to make.

forever thinking about royal’s bad ending. my thing with it is that maruki doesn’t necessarily give anyone what they want most, he gives them what’s most appropriate for them to want within a maruki-approved framework. iirc there’s a really interesting text sequence in the game where he just straight up changes someone’s career because they’re not “good” at it, regardless of whether that’s what they actually want. why struggle at all? ever? right?

and so ultimately i don’t think goro akechi’s greatest wish is necessarily ren. i think it’s a wish for sure, but his greatest wish is his own agency. despite any regrets he has and the fact that shido and yaldabaoth treated him like a pawn, he's generally pretty adamant about owning his choices and their consequences. he doesn't want that erased. and instead, you end up with pleasant boy™ if you take maruki’s deal. maybe maruki (incorrectly) thinks sanding off all of akechi’s rough edges will make him easier for ren to love. but the crux of it is really that maruki has to essentially lobotomize him to preserve the illusion of his perfect reality, because their ideologies are so diametrically opposed that akechi would spend every waking moment fighting back.

this isn’t to undermine ren’s importance to akechi btw — he explicitly acknowledges that he wishes they had met earlier, and there are countless moments throughout their confidant that underscore how much it means to him that they mirror each other so well. he absolutely does want more time with ren, just not under these circumstances.

and that’s also what makes ren’s choice on 2/2 doubly devastating. he knows that either way he loses akechi. and if he takes maruki’s deal, he loses him knowing that his last moments with the real akechi involved the two of them being unforgivably out of sync.