How about that sudden twist in the main characters' collective guts in-between the Okumura arc and the beginning of the Nijima arc, huh? It's a bit of a shame that because I watched the anime, I kinda know the story about Akechi Goro, but seeing it play out in real time, and with the build-up done throughout the course of the game, I do believe that it's done relatively well in highlighting Akechi as someone that's a bit more prominent than the other non-playable confidants, but the exact nature of what is kept relatively... interesting until the big reveal.
Anyway, like Makoto, Akechi ends up being introduced as a bit of an antagonistic force, the 'doubting police' trope like Commissioner Gordon. And while Akechi is certainly quite special, I really think that having him and Kasumi already be friends with our protagonist and having interactions with him to build up some degree of trust is actually a pretty great aspect of their characterization. I honestly do think that this would've benefited Haru, too, out of the main characters -- we meet Morgana, Ann and Ryuji early on; Makoto is an antagonist for the first leg of the game; while Yusuke and Futaba have very believable reasons not to meet our main cast yet.
Anyway, this time around we're exploring Nijima Sae's Palace, which takes place in the form of a casino! I haven't actually explored a lot of the casino area, but there's enough between the Personas I met there and some new ones I encountered from fusion to do an article.
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Robin Hood
- Arcana: Justice
So yeah, Akechi's Persona is Robin Hood, another rather traditional 'roguish thief' in the same vein as Arsene or Zoro. After stretching the label of 'thief' and 'rebel' quite a bit, it's neat to have something that goes back to relatively its roots. And Robin Hood has a very... superhero-y look to him, yeah? I can't pick out an exact superhero that serves as the inspiration to this, but there's a very "Superman" vibe with that super-heroic upper body. Must be that chiseled chest and the hilarious 'RH' symbol on it.
Robin Hood is an outlaw in English folklore, who operated during the medieval period, who is a skilled archer and swordsman who 'robs from the rich to give to the poor', leading a band of Merry Men. He opposes the oppressive government at the time, the evil Prince John who stole the throne from his brother Richard, and specifically the local Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood supports the rightful ruler Richard, but is branded as an outlaw because of this.
And... well, Akechi's story is that he's actually fighting for the sake of justice, being aligned with the police as the 'detective prince'. But he found himself aligned with the Phantom Thieves in this work, so that's why the Robin Hood themes. Robin Hood's normally associated with green colours, while Persona's Robin Hood elects for bright, gaudy whites with red and blue accents. Oh, and he also has a giant fuck-off bow that would make the Quincies in Bleach proud. Like some of the 'JoJo Stand-esque' personal Personas of the main characters, Robin Hood's head appears to be robotic, and I do like that the red 'hat' kinda evokes Akechi's own bird-mask.
Not the most excitedwith this one, though I do appreciate how different he looks compared to the rest of the main playable cast. I mean, buff superhero with a giant bow and arrow is kind of hard to be similar to. Anyway, this is the last 'base form' playable Persona that we encounter for the main cast of Persona 5 Royal, though I am aware that the game has at least a couple more spin-offs in Strikers and P5X... I might play Strikers at some point in the next couple of years, but probably not anytime soon! I mean, I have to get through Royal first, and at this point I'm just approaching the climax of the original game's plot!
Byakko
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Temperance
We start off now with a bunch of Personas that I fused in-between the many cutscenes that was going on. Byakko, or Baihu (白虎), is the White Tiger and the third of the Four Symbols of the Chinese Constellations -- we've met the Xuanwu (Genbu) and Zhuque (Suzaku) before. The Baihu represents the West, the season of autumn, and the element of metal ('wind' in Japan).
There are also a bunch of myths related to tigers in ancient China, where tigers are treated as the 'king of beasts', and white tigers are thought to be particularly wise and powerful tigers that have reached 500 years old and has became a mythological creature. The white tiger is said to only appear when a virtuous emperor appeared, making it a good sign.
Persona's Byakko is pretty much what you'd expect from a white tiger monster, having the general anatomy of a white tiger and a bunch of flowing extraneous aspects on its legs and head that flow around it. Not sure how I feel about the tail, which trails behind like a whip... maybe I would take it more seriously if it didn't have a little puff on the terminus? Also, bizarrely, despite being associated with wind in Japanese myths, Byakko is highly specialized with Ice-type skills.
Atropos
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
After Clotho and Lachesis, we finally get the final member of the three Moirae Sisters, the Sisters of Fate... Atropos the Shearer. Atropos is the most memorable of the three and the one that most myths focus on, because she's the one associated with death. She holds the shears (or scissors) and she snips off the threads of someone's fate near their death. She is the 'Inflexible One', and alongside her sisters, controls the destiny of every living mortal. With this, Atropos is sometimes conflated with other aspects or facets of death. I really do think I've spoken enough about the Three Fates when I talked about Clotho and Lachesis, though, so you guys can zip back and see what I have to say about them.
Looking at the designs of all three sisters in Persona/SMT, yeah, Atropos is just a variation of her two sisters. Where Clotho and Lachesis wore red and white bodysuits respectively, Atropos wears the obvious black. And where Clotho and Lachesis wore that... strange... material as a cape and a skirt respectively, Atropos wears it... as a weird head-frame-thing. Okay!
Kushinada
- Monster Name: Lamenting Sacrifice
- Arcana: Lovers
This is almost a palette-swap of Kikuri-hime that we talked about recently, only swapping the tomoe into combs. Which is... a lot more hilarious to have two large haircombs on either side of the lady's head. I do appreciate the alteration, though. This could have very easily been just a generic palette swap, but changing just a bit of the accessories really does a decent job at making them feel more unique. The comb is also relevant to Kushinada's lore!
Kushinada-hime is a figure from the Japanese creation myths, which we thankfully have covered a while back when I talked about Izanagi. Kushinada is the daughter of two lesser gods, Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, but was most notable for becoming the wife of the storm god Susano'o. Susano'o was expelled from heaven, and when he traveled near Izumo Province, Susano'o meets Kushinada's parents, who were weeping. They were tormented by the giant multi-headed snake Yamata no Orochi, having to sacrifice one of their daughters every year to prevent the Orochi's rampage. And Kushinada is their eighth and final daughter.
Susano'o was taken aback by Kushinada's beauty, and asked her hand in marriage. Kushinada agreed, so long as Susano'o deals with the giant snake. Susano'o transforms Kushinada into a comb ('kushi') and hid her in his hair. There are several versions of the myth, but the more commonly-known one has Susano'o masquerades as Kushinada-hime, and then tricks the Orochi into getting drunk with eight vats of sake, before slaying the giant snake with his blade. After the Orochi was slain, Kushinada-hime would then marry Susano'o.
Both Kushinada and Kikuri show up as enemies in Nijima's Palace, and while I do feel like the thematicness of a Palace's 'wild' Shadows have decreased by a fair bit, there is a notably large amount of women in Nijima Sae's Palace are ladies -- Kikuri, Kushinada, Valkyrie, Queen Mab below... while there's a mixture of 'holy' Shadows (like Power and Unicorn) and 'demonic' Shadows (like Ose)
Queen Mab
- Monster Name: Midnight Queen
- Arcana: Magician
Okay, Queen Mab is... an interesting character in mythology. The actual spelling of 'Queen Mab' is taken from William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, where she is one of the characters mentioned as a 'fairies' midwife'. She would appear in other literature as well, sometimes characterized as a prankster that plays midnight pranks upon sleeping folk, or as the Queen of the Fairies.
There has ben theories, however, that Shakespeare borrowed or corrupted the name Mab from Medb (anglicized as 'Maeve'), the Queen of Connacht in Irish mythology. Queen Medb is a warrior-queen, and is involved particularly in the Ulster Cycle, best known for starting the Táin Bó Cúailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley") to steal Ulster's prized bull. In these myths, the hero Cu Chulainn (who we covered before!) would face off against the forces of Queen Medb, slaying her pets, warriors and handmaidens and ultimately winning the clash between the two kingdoms in single combat. There isn't really much to connect the cunning warrior-queen Medb with a tiny sleep-inducing prankster, so most historians agree that the most Shakespeare borrowed was the name.
Persona's 'Queen Mab' takes the 'fairy queen' interpretation and notes that she's 'identified with Titania', a completely different character from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, though I can't find any references about the 'mead mixed with blood'. Her appearance is... again, maybe it's because I'm watching JoJo recently, but she's another one that I feel would fit right at home within the aesthetics of a JoJo Stand. I find the bright green and blue crisscrossing lines of her bodysuit to be memorable, and... she's got a rather interesting almost helmet-like face. The lavender hair and chainmail upper body is neat, too. It's not a design I particularly like, but it's a memorable design at least!
Orlov
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Strength
Another Treasure Demon, and at this point I'm honestly just including them for completion's sake. Same old, same old. The Orlov is a diamond stolen from a Hindu temple in 1747 by someone who disguised himself as a monk there. It originally served as the eye of a temple deity Sriranganatha, and would ultimately end up in the hands of Count Grigory Grigoreivich Orlov, and ultimately made its way to being embedded into the scepter of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
Pazuzu
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Devil
Popularized as the 'demon' in the classic horror movie The Exorcist, the actual Pazuzu is a deity from Mesopotamian mythology, where he is the personification of the south-western wind, ruling over wind demons called lilu. Pazuzu is revered as both a dangerous, monstrous wind, but would also safeguard homes from other demons, being particularly protective of pregnant women and mothers -- who he would defend from his rival, Lamashtu.
I don't really have a whole ton to say here. The artwork for Pazuzu is pretty stylized but ultimately faithful with the complete statues of Pazuzu that have been recovered -- two pairs of wings, a somewhat leonine head, a humanoid body, and even the post of having one hand raised (though it's the wrong hand here) is similar to the main picture of Pazuzu in Wikipedia.
And... and that's honestly all I have to say here? I don't know. Pazuzu's design and origin mythology are pretty sufficient for what he is, but I really don't have much to say here.
Fortuna
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
Oh! This one is interesting. I really like the weird design of this one. Fortuna is a goddess of luck in Roman mythology, and obviously the English word 'fortune' comes from her name. Fortuna is the daughter of Jupiter and Venus (Roman counterparts of Zeus and Aphrodite) and is often shown to be veiled or blind, thanks to the phrase 'luck is blind'. Fortuna is associated with a ship's rudder, a cornucopia, or a wheel of fortune.
Most Roman gods are extrapolated from Greek ones, but Fortuna's Greek counterpart, Tyche, had different origins (she's the daughter of Tethys and Poseidon, or sometimes Zeus) and slightly different realms (Tyche presided over the fortune and prosperity of a city). Fortuna herself had a cult around her, and would be merged and associated with other goddesses, notably the Egyptian Isis. She's one of the gods that would still be used as a representation as 'Lady Luck' or 'Lady Fortune' even with the heavy spread of Christianity... and would be the very being depicted on the Wheel of Fortune tartor card.
And, well, there's a pretty interesting design here! They could've just made her a generic lady in a dress, but they literally made her body a literal 'wheel of fortune', embedding a wheel in place of her abdomen. Really do like that her black-and-white strands of hair from her top and her skirt form like a pinwheel around the central 'wheel'. Fortuna's actually a goddess of both good and bad luck, and I think this is what the differently-coloured cloth represents? Anyway, I didn't expect to like her design quite as much!
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