#bc idk how ppl watch this and somehow miss all the characterization | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

meowsticmarvels · 2 months

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im curious. who are your fav characters from each mainline persona game that you have played 🤔🤔 (take this as an invitation to ramble about them)

YIPEEEEEEEE here we go will be long so im hiding it under a readmore again. also since you said mainline im not including toshiro or eri but you Know...... im abnorma, abt them

i have NOT played p1 and i've just barely started p2is (though ive watched snippets of someone elses's playthrough) but i will say. based on my limited knowledge i rly like hidehiko, ayase, naoya, tatsuya, jun, eikichi, yukino, maya, and lisa

p3 and p4 are difficult bc theyre the ones im the most autistic abt and the main entire casts as a whole are comforts for me. but anyways. going to talk about p3 first Yes I Will Include SLs too. im abnormal. top 3 main insaners for p3 though are akihiko, yukari, and junpei. for me

makoto/minato sooo so gender envy. im obsessed with his design a lot. his character i do also like hes a little goofy and so mecore but mainly his design is something i love a lot

same with kotone. also love how she has a sort of distinct personality that you can tell with slight dialogue changes that her counterpart doesnt say. shes rly real. love reload but i miss her...

as stated yukari's one of my favs. she didnt Use to be (i did like her but Not as much) but she's slowly become one and man. i love that silly girl. her haters will not survive the winter actually. it does piss me off though because like. yeah shes not perfect no character rly is but she's a traumatized mentally ill teenage girl with a dead dad and a neglectful mom cut her some slack maybe? god forbid women do anything. idk. but im obsessed with her. her character is actually so interesting to me and not a lot of people talk about it? like her whole fear of death causing issues with summoning her persona like at the beginnning, her dad being involved with the kirijo groups shit, how she puts on a cheerful front but is actually deeply really lonely :(, her kinda playful insult friendship with junpei (deep down they do care abt eachother. i wish that was explored more. i found a rly good fic abt it once.) and etc etc. idrk what to say but shes sooo. i also love how she initially HATES mitsuru and is super jealous of her and then. Well. gay tension is real. anyways shes a transfem lesbian to me btw. yukamitsu ftw

junpei's also become one of my favs. somehow. in a similar vein to yukari in that he wasn't initially my main fav character but i think his character's also pretty interesting and has. a lot of unexplored potential. he's very silly and i love him for that a lot but something i don't see many people talk about is like. his Issues. like yeah hes silly but he's also got some fucked up self-worth issues!!! remember the scene on 5/9 where he kinda gets really upset and goes off on his own and stuff. for example. like i think him being imperfect and having these moments where he's NOT cheerful and goofy all the time and actually deeply really jealous of you because he feels that fighting's all he's good for and he's not worth much else is what makes him interesting. do you get it. like him being tbe silly funny guy isn't all he is as a person yk!!!!! also as far as characterization I point a lot to the scene where yukari's more than willing to go confront the people in the alley while junpei's worried, or scene near the end of the game where yukari teases junpei and he snaps at her, confessing that while he doesn't show it he really is terrified. they all are, at that point. yk what I mean? also people don't acknowledge his trauma with his father enough (maybe because it's only really discussed at all in femc's route... his SL is so good but not enough ppl see it... BUR YEAH did not think I'd go off on a tangent about junpei fucking iori tonight but he's real. hashtag brokeback tartarus. also he's an adhder to me. (oh yeah also want to point out this line in his SL where he says "maybe I have anxiety or something". yeah. that's a line!)

akihiko fucking sanada. ohhhh man. this guy. where do i even START. he's so so crazy like what if your local high school upperclassman boxing champion guy was also really gay for his dying childhood friend and autistic as hell and also traumatized. and he's doing boxing in the first place to overcompensate because the death of his sister made him fear losing anyone else again snd he needs to feel like he has power. he needs control. yk? like this guy made me insane for like several months straight in 2023 and he still makes me ill. to this day. as you can probably tell by my distaste for people seeing yukari and junpei at face value you can probably gather that I hate the protein jokes and i Do. he said it like. Once in p3. it never rly was funny????? and what they did in spinoffs esp p4a to just make him look like a gym rat and nothing more makes me upset bc of the REASON he's obsessed with fighting. he's not just a dumb jock (he also isn't dumb lol he canonically scores very high on his exams) he's overworking himself because feelings of self doubt from trauma have caused him to feel the need to overcompensate so he never loses anyone again. you know? it would've been interesting to see him relapse in p4a if theyd actually done it well. like he doesnt rly give himself time or room to grieve in game (theres rhat onw scene on 10/5 and then he barely talks about it again. man i wish it was developed more...) so realizing that grieving isnt a linear process that he can just repress for a long time and even years after it can still hurt would go INSANE. but no they just turned him into i love protein joke number 20. okay!!! (im very angry) thinking about when my non persona friend after hearing me explain some of the plot described p3 as like a greek tragedy because like. damn. he and shinji were doomed from the start with personas like polydeuces and castor huh. anyways. yeah. continuing writing now that i've watched october 4th in reload AND akihiko's breakdown as a reuslt and i wanna scream and cry and throw up that will be for another post but ooh man it mad eme cry like 3 times. and I KNOEW WHAT HAPPENS. THEYRE SOOOOOOOOOO if you know me im an insane akishinji truther. im just. i wanna talk abt other charactrs so ill stop here but always ask me about akihiko + akishinji + ships i like in general. i am really normal. oh btw transmasc akihiko is forever real to me. also he's autistic and a ptsder. to me (tbf what persona character Doesnt have some form of truama but like. this guy in particular). up there with my highest blorbos

i dooont wanna go on for too long abt every other character in p3 so ill keep this next part short and sweet but if u wanna hear me talk more abt any of them. feel free to. starting with fuuka i love he rmy transfem autistic girlie who has every disease. i also love mitsuru a lot who i Wish had people acknowledge her deeper aspects more. like. she was experimented on and also very sheltered and also a little bit of a girlfail. shes not fully the girlboss you all say she is shes also just a teenage girl!!!!!!!!!! koromaru can do no wrong hes forever the best. i love that dog. ken makes me so so sad he is just a kid!!! what the hell!!!!!! :(. and oh man. shinji. guy who is so wracked with guilt. guy that is dying no matter what happens. guy that dies in his lover's arms

as far as non-sees characters. i rly like strega. esp jin and chidori. dont think abt them enough. also as far as SLs i like keisuke, hidetoshi, bunkichi and mitsuko, kazushi, yuko, and etc etc...i need to see rio and saoris links too they look real. oh also i LOVE ryoji

p4 time !!!!!!

again gonna cut this short so i can actually Fit it all in one post. but wow. i do like all of the IT so so much but im just focusing on my favs. anyways i love yu so much his autistic swagger esp in the animation is amazing. like he is not a "chad" he's just an autistic teenager. ok. also the animation broke me when nanako gets kidnapped he sounds fucking distraught there. love when people delve into yu's issues also bc hes a bit fucked up but Man. ouch. just like me fr tho

i love yosuke in a similar way to why I like junpei because he's kind of a loser /pos snd has some insane issues that his shadow delves into that are Kind of Insane for the FIRST shadow of the game. like ok damn. i really do love his social link in general tho his was the first one I maxed out in my (unfinished because i didn't want to finish it) p4g playthrough so!!!!! many things wrong with him and also the lgbt community has forgiven yosuke hanamura. also similarly to junpei he's adhd as hell. souyo ftw

naotos probably my fav p4 character I think which is Pretty Painful Sometimes. sometimes I need to kill both other persona fans and atlus if ykwim. but anyways i hc him as transmasc for one thing but also if atlus weren't cowards and actually made his story abt rhat it would've hit so hard. his shadow in general is often overlooked apart from that bc what about the part where he talks about being mistreated by others and feeling utterly alone and not allowing himself to act like a kid!!!! it fucks me up!!! he's also super autism btw like god damn. but YEAH point is I love naoto so much and i hate how both some fans and atlus tjemself treat him because his whole arc and shadow had the potential to be super compelling

apart from who i listed above i do like the rest of the IT so much they're such silly friends (i love you chie i love you yukiko i love you kanji i love you rise i love you teddie.). can't think of any SLs off the top of my head that were crazy but I do like daisuke and kou. OH ALSOO the dojimas..... 😢💧😢😢💧 love them

p5 time :3 I'm into it less so than p3 or p4 but Still

yusuke's my favorite p5 character probably. i domt know what it is apart from the common trend of my favs being autistic as hell (see: akihiko and naoto) but he's like. such a fucked up guy. he's traumatized. he loves art. something is deeply wrong with him. obsessed with this gug

i also do like ren/akira, ryuji, futaba, and also mishima (unfortunately. but in my defense there is something deeply wrong with him slash positive). i don't know a lot abt all of p5's confidants but i like iwai I think.... this reminded me I need to make more progress in p5 what the hell. i miss you futaba (i haven't even got to her palace yet im still on kaneshiros LOL)

but YEAH! thank you for asking!!! from the ones I've played my top favs are akihiko + naoto + yusuke respectively so👍👍👍 loved answering this :3 if u have any thoughts on a particular character feel free to ask and ill elaborate :3

#sparky speaks #persona #not maintaggjng BUT here i talk a lot about:#yukari junpei akihiko yu yosuke naoto yusuke #and some others. LOL. but i am indane #SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO RESPOND i just have a Lot to say #anddd i still wanna properly get into p1 and p2 tbh

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rocks-tumbled · 7 years

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Could you explain the sugilite thing? Genuinely curious bc I'm not fully understanding how her design is offensive :0

sure! it’s not so much like i see her and go “AHHH i’m offended,” more that there are some components of her design that make me immensely uncomfortable due to them being historically prevalent in more explicitly racist media (remember in a racist society, everything and everyone is racist to some degree) & are important to keep in mind. i’m gonna put this under a cut because it’s long and i’m sure not many ppl wanna read this haha

there are some articles on it i’ll link below, but basically wide set eyes are a common feature that’s overemphasized in racial caricatures of black and asian people to denote unintelligence. the exaggerated “v” shape of her open mouth is mirrored in old cartoon depictions of black people with minstrel-esque lips, so using that posing to connote “jolliness” when she talks was eerie to see after having been exposed to that. her arms are disproportionately long, with large hands, which is dehumanizing, especially on black characters where there’s an extensive history behind that, and she has been described by some articles as visually ape-like, which is a very common trope in racist depictions of black people (slurs at link) in cartoons and in general. also, her outfit is torn up, which happens a lot in depictions showing black people in particular as uncivilized or “savage.”

the idea of black people being “monstrous” is also an issue, which is why the many eyes and arms could be taken into consideration as well. why does she have to be the least humanoid of the fusions? maybe the show will more heavily address that, but it doesn’t really change anything for a young viewer imo, especially when blackness and stereotypical black features are often given to villains/evil characters/monsters in children’s media. monstrosity and cruelty being given to black coded characters is a huge issue with real life effects on even the youngest of kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkB0rm6odQI

http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2016/08/30/steven-universe-100-bismuth-undermined-by-racial-coding/ this article touches heavily on the implications of sugilite visually. there’s a lot mentioned that i actually think was intentional and meant to be subversions or may turn into subversion of harmful tropes. but, the concrete thing has been characterized by both crew members as a thoughtless error, and looking at how some characters on the show are handled, idk, errors could be more common. people are imperfect, sometimes with consequences.

https://medium.com/@dtwps/all-these-black-characters-and-0-done-right-how-steven-universe-fails-its-black-fanbase-part-i-81e0b0b8c3fe discusses how sugilite is written and characterized. the article contains dated language to refer to mixed race people, just a warning

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/4-tired-tropes-misogynoir/ this is an important read given how sugilite is characterized as brutish, etc.. and the fan response to her. also important to read up on the mammy and jezebel archetypes, the two most prevalent tropes black female characters are written with (often they are combined); this is something the crew 100% thinks about for every black coded character because it’s so pervasive and harmful, you can’t be a writer and somehow not be aware of it. su makes an effort to subvert them imo but typically actively avoids them

here are some resources on anti-black racial caricatures, i likely missed some stuff for this character but you can see for yourself

http://black-face.com/ minstrel shows featuring black people are technically considered representation. so this discusses literal blackface and the tropes that emerged with it, which persist to this day. these are the most basic visual and writing tropes from which most are derived, slurs and dated language at link

http://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/diversity/african/ more common tropes and examples, slurs and lynching imagery visible for some

http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0026 i really recommend watching this clip, a preview of the documentary, for some imagery of how large black women were designed and animated. and also, the line “well into the middle of the 20th century, these were some of the most popular depictions of black americans” is not an exaggeration. this history is so important to keep in mind, especially because like. animation comes from this, everyone’s favorite golden age animators were complicit in this.

also really important from that clip is the statement that “black[ people] don’t really look like that. so why is it so appealing to people to pretend they look like that, to look at icons that look like that?” and of course, this is immensely impactful on society and informs societal understanding/perception of entire racial groups; it extends to inform public policy and cause internalized racism. this is actually a widely accepted sociological framework called symbolic interactionist theory if you’re interested in learning more. basically, media has a huge impact on us, and we (individuals and larger society) have a huge impact on it; we reflect each other

i wanted to share this clip to demonstrate in animation form what some of the above links are discussing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cftUIdSr_T8 (ignore the text tbh, focus on the way characters are shaped, how they move, what they’re saying and how). if you haven’t seen stuff like this before especially… it’s really emotionally exhausting, and jarring. it’s so gross. but it’s important to remember that not all of this was intended to be a derogatory or negative portrayal, most were probably seen as 100% okay by the majority of white people at least, this literally is what our society is and a large part of why it is what it is.

things have changed so much, but the impact/legacy of this shit never goes away, so it’s good to be educated and aware. i honestly think su is more sensitive to this than literally any other cartoon from the past 5 years, but nothing is perfect or ever will be, we just have to keep trying, everyone from creatives to academics to policymakers. crew members from su have discussed this, and lindsay ellis goes into this idea while accessibly describing the impact of these tropes and why intent can be felt in the final product (what hopefully sets sugi apart from caricatures in less positive media): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qQN8hML12U

like lamar’s statement says, 10 years from now, the cartoons coming out will be even better! just look at how much better su is at handling its poc-coded characters than recent shows like ren and stimpy, or even contemporary cartoon network shows like clarence and uncle grandpa. there are so many compared to the shows i watched as a little kid, and the writers and artists are genuinely being thoughtful with the portrayals. and i have never seen an apology like what happened because of concrete, with a crew member and showrunner both apologizing and promising to do better. like maybe… dr seuss did it for his racist caricatures and that’s pretty much it. so it’s not all bad, maybe they’ll handle this character differently in the future, i mean amethyst has grown a lot and it would make sense to have the fusion change a bit. but that wouldn’t nullify these issues, and i’m hopeful it will be addressed one day, especially directly by the crew

also for the love of god, please don’t send me hate about this. it may seem like a non-issue to you, but tens of thousands of sociologists and even most animators say otherwise. it is important to at least acknowledge that the media we consume impacts us and our world and that it can be analyzed with the context of history and modern society. hope this helps

#sorry this is long im used to writing papers about this shit #racism #Anonymous

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