#I wanna know how she'd react to his actual demeanor especially after 11/20's hellscape

[tricksterlatte]

There's something absolutely ironic and even compelling to me about the domino effect regarding Akechi and Sae's interactions. Akechi had to deceive everyone, including his coworkers. Sae in particular was closely tied to the investigations of the crimes he was committing, so of course appearing as non-threatening or even annoying as possible to her was in his best interests.

However, his petty but arguably feeble masquerade is what led to his cognitive self in Sae's brain presumably being easy for the Phantom Thieves to tie up? He was too good at deception and it led to Sae's perception of him being sopping wet cat, which was easy for the Thieves to subdue, so the threatening, real Akechi wouldn't stumble upon Sae's cognition of him as he went to murder Joker.

I know people usually discuss Shido's cognitive Akechi and the implications regarding Akechi's presentation of himself and his layers of deception, but Sae's is the direct contrast to Shido's, and it's very interesting to look at how being a petty little asshole to your stressed out hot lady coworker about her skincare routine can also contribute to her thinking of you a a nuisance at best (until it was almost too late for everyone involved, but hey, it worked out for the best? I think).

I love the layers of Akechi's deception because he was cunning to a fault. Sometimes I wish we could have seen how the Thieves interacted with Sae's cognition of him, because both Sae and Shido had a very biased perception of him, and it makes me wonder who really knew Akechi at all. I'm rambling here, but it's been on my mind for ages. I would love to see if her cognitive Akechi changed after 11/20, considering he went from annoying junior detective to a dangerous murderer in just one day for her, and she doesn't remember any of third semester or even 12/24 when he was there.

#parker says things #I love Sae I love everything she represents and her impact on the story so much #She's probably my favorite non Thief character other than MAYBE Sojiro and it shows #This was on my mind as I wrote her and Akechi interacting post canon because wow they barely did and we didn't see any of it on 12/24? #hardly any #I wanna know how she'd react to his actual demeanor especially after 11/20's hellscape #she walked out of that room suspecting him due to Joker and then came back to a murder scene even if that was the metaverse #actually so fascinating to think about how she had no choice but to adapt #and her palace was still there? Atlus give me more please #p5 spoilers #goro akechi the man that you are god I love you and your masks and deception and true self #and how those masks deceive even the player. sometimes even long after completing the game #on all sides. god it's so good #I love any characters who make me think I love morally gray characters who are actually morally gray #ahhhhhhhhhhh