Anyway, I think I'm going to kickstart the penultimate arc in the original Persona 5, and we've finally met the primary antagonist! But before I continue, I think I'll do a couple more reviews of some more fusion-made Personas I did in Niijima's Palace that I simply didn't get to talk about last time!
Our eyecatcher this time around is Kawakami, and her story is... okay. A lot of the non-party confidants do have their stories be around some sort of blackmail or oppression from more powerful forces, and I get that it's one of the central themes of Persona 5. There's the interesting wrinkle of Kawakami also being a on-call maid, and while the dialogue emphasizes that she's not part of the sex trade (yet; one of the motivations to the urgency of her story is to prevent her from being recruited into it) there's also the exploration of the stigma that comes with someone that's even tangentially tied to it. There's also the rather... questionable implications of someone that's a teacher dating her student. Oh well!
____________________________________________________
Komokuten
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Hermit
The third member of our Four Heavenly Kings (it's been a while since we saw them!) is Koumokuten, 広目天, who is also known as Virūpākṣa in the original Sanskrit and 廣目天王 Guǎngmù Tiānwáng (Vast-Eyed Heaven King) in Mandarin. Virūpākṣa is the guardian of the West, and is the leader of the Nagas. As his name implies, Virūpākṣa has divine eyes, which allows him not only to see through great distances, but also to judge the karma of sentient beings.
The Chinese depiction of Guǎngmù Tiānwáng is commonly shown with red skin, holding either a red naga or a lasso in his hands, a representation of 'catching' people and drawing them into the Buddhist faith. He's often depicted with the rest of the Four Heavenly Kings, or among the Twenty-Four Devas. Koumokuten, meanwhile, is commonly depicted in the Tempyo period as holding a brush in his right hand and a scroll in his left hand. He's often shown wearing Tang-dynasty military armour, while trampling on a Jaki.
Again, it was kinda neat reading up on them and seeing the differences as the religion and culture moved from one nation to the next, but I never have much to say about humanoid Personas.
Okuninushi
- Monster Name: Ancient Lord
- Arcana: Faith
When the amatsukami -- heavenly gods -- led by Amaterasu demanded that Okuninushi relinquish his rule over the land, Okuninushi agreed to their terms. Okuninushi was given the unseen world, Kakuriyo, in exchange, and he retreated there to rule over it. Meanwhile, Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi came down to govern over the terrestrial world, eventually becoming the ancestor of the Japanese imperial line. Okuninushi is closely associated with the province of Izumo in western Japan, which is now known as the Shimane Prefecture. The myth of Okuninushi's surrender to the heavenly gods may be a reflection of how this area was also absorbed by the Yamato court.
It's a great time reading about him, but Okuninushi is another one that's just a dude in traditional armour, I really don't have much to say about Okuninushi from a design standpoint.
Sarasvati
- Monster Name: Strumming Veena Player
- Arcana: Priestess
Sarasvati (सरस्वती) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom and learning, and is associated with the Sarasvati River. She is known as a member of the Tridevi, alongside Parvati and Laskhmi. Sarasvati is generally shown to have four arms, holding in each a book, a rosary, a water-pot, and a veena (which is the musical instrument shown here). Each of these items have a symbolic meaning in Hinduism. Sarasvati is celebrated in the festival of Vasant Panchami, and in that day young children are taught how to learn the letters of the alphabet. In the legends, Sarasvati was born out of Brahma's mind, and would become his consort.
There are a lot of myths around Sarasvati in Hinduism, but in Japan, she would be known as Benzaiten, who is often shown holding a biwa (a Japanese instrument), and is alternatively shown with two or eight hands.
And... again, I really could say a lot about the actual mythological Sarasvati, but as a 'monster' in Persona 5, she's... she sure is a lady playing a veena.
Parvati
- Monster Name: Destructive Beauty
- Arcana: Lovers
I feel like the same can be said about Parvati. She sure is a lady in a fancy dress! She has a nice pink aesthetic, and like Sarasvati, Parvati is portrayed as being pretty tasteful-looking. But she really doesn't leave me much to say about her in-game model or design!
Parvati (पार्वती) is the goddess of fertility, love, beauty, marriage, motherhood and children in Hinduism, and is the wife of the god Shiva. Parvati in her complete form is the physical representation of Mahadevi, the primordial power behind the creation of the universe, the creator and destroyer. She forms the Tridevi with Laskhmi and Saraswati. Parvati is the reincarnation of Sati, the first wife of Shiva, and Parvati is born to the mountain-king Himavan and queen Mena. She would later seek out Shiva, and the two would eventually be reunited and give birth to Kartikeya and Ganesha. Parvati is generally portrayed as a gentle, nurturing mother goddess, but is associated with several other fearsome forms like Durga and Kali.
Just like many other figures in Hinduism, there are a lot of slight variations here and there in regards to how Parvati is depicted and the legends around her. I really do feel like I should read much more and wait until I'm a bit more qualified before I talk too much about these myths!
Yatagarasu
- Monster Name: Sun's Emissary
- Arcana: Councillor
Anyway, Persona 5's Yatagarasu is pretty much just a three-legged crow, with a necklace of three magatamas that kinda look like a claw of its own. Pretty neat.
Pale Rider
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Death
Like Komokuten above, this is the third member of another 'set' of four, although bizarrely the Pale Rider is traditionally the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Pale Rider is the fourth and final Horseman of Apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelation, a rider who rides on an ashen/pale horse. Unlike the other three, the rider of the pale horse is specifically identified as 'Death'. Most translations also adds 'Hades was following him'. In art, the Horseman of Death is generally drawn as a grim reaper, a skeletal figure with a scythe, though the source material never describes Death as wielding anything.
The actual translation of khlōros (χλωρός) has been debated from anywhere from being colourless, pale, pallied, but now more commonly thought to represent a sickly green or yellowish green, probably representing a rotting corpse. Again, it's never not cool to see a badass grim reaper with a scythe riding a horse, but I think the White Rider and his eyeball horse set the Fourse Horsemen of Apocalypse to look so cool that it's inevitably a bit disappointing that this is just a reaper dude on a horse with glowing eyes.
Baphomet
- Monster Name: Heretic Goat
- Arcana: Devil
And we close this off with another demon that commonly appears in pop culture, Baphomet! Unlike what I originally thought, Baphomet is not from the Bible, or any Biblical material, but rather from the time of the Knights Templar (circa the 1200's-1300's). The Knights Templar were accused of worshipping 'Baphomet' by church inquisitors, and were branded as heretics. This lead to the burning of several Templar leaders... although it was later revealed that this was orchestrated by King Philip IV of France, who wanted to weaken the Templars' influence.
The name Baphomet eventually bled into various Western occult traditions, particularly in the 18th-19th century, and generally portrayed as some kind of pagan deity or demon. Baphomet became associated with the 'Sabbatic Goat' image in demonology, which was meant to represent the 'equilibrium of opposites' between man and beast, male and female, and good and evil. The head of the goat, with the horns and the beards, fits into an upside-down star, and all that. Thanks to all these imagery, Baphomet's image became associated with the common image of a goat-headed humanoid, associated with pentagrams and often depicted as being a hermaphrodite. Baphomet is said to be able to control women, and is associated with witches and the 'Black Sabbath' for this reason.
Persona's Baphomet is more or less similar enough to the goat-headed demon, and... it sure is a goat-headed demon with huge angelic wings and a fiery forehead. It's distinct enough from the other demonic Personas in this game, but also something we kinda see a lot in media, so it's not that interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment