#he HATED maruki's nasty little world and wanted it GONE

[muzzleroars]

This question has P5R spoilers, I guess, in it. I am someone who has yet to play any persona game and has only watch a gameplay of the Vanilla and seen only clips of P5R, looking for non-cheater gameplay on YouTube, this question may be off. From a clip I saw with Lavenza; Maruki took over as the God of Control due the Thieves unknowingly wished for it. So, could it have been possible for the Thieves to turn into Gods? Due to the mass belief in them?

P5R SPOILERS UNDER THE READ MORE!

i think that would absolutely be the case, it’s just that the thieves had placed their hope into maruki and therefor allowed him to become a god instead. HOWEVER...there’s a great theory on this transfer that user mango4567 wrote here, positing that akira retained his godhood despite the other thieves giving up their’s, and i totally agree with the interpretation. akira remains aware of the true reality despite all the other thieves forgetting it instantly the moment maruki shifts to take yaldabaoth’s place and akira’s acceptance of this dream reality seems utterly critical to everyone involved, including maruki. of course, there could be other reasons for this - maruki may feel a sense of connection to akira and so he desperately wants him to be happy, or it could be that he needs akira to acquiesce simply because akira is the biggest threat to him. however, what is more telling imo is that ALL the thieves, including goro, look to akira to make this decision. why? goro is especially hellbent on getting out of this false reality, and the other thieves feel extreme guilt for wanting to accept it in the first place, but they’ll all follow whatever decision akira makes. i frankly found it bizarre, although it may make sense with the thieves - i mean, they would allow a missed deadline so they’re pretty bound to akira’s judgment, but goro never made sense. what does make all of this track is that akira has taken yaldabaoth’s place, and so whatever decision he makes will be vital - if he doesn’t accept this reality, then maruki’s plan will never fully come to fruition because a competing god has rejected his world, and since it’s a world based all around cognition, akira’s refusal would translate into a blockade on maruki’s reality.

i believe akira retains this divinity for the reasons mango4567 lists too, that he knows he has the power to defeat yaldabaoth and he has ingrained his role as a phantom thief, a thief of hearts, into the framework of his personality. however, i also believe the fool confidant is key to this retention as well (i kno i kno BUT HEAR ME OUT) - the fool confidant is yaldabaoth’s social link, which means it is the social link of the public at large. per my last theory on this, it also seems like the fool confidant is mutual, as it appears as though rank 10 is achieved on yaldabaoth’s end which is a bond that must translate to the public due to yaldabaoth being their avatar. this is a relationship akira has forged, a connection he made through his own incredible effort, and so the public are directly linked to him and his fate, making it HIGHLY likely that the onus of much of yaldabaoth’s power and responsibility would then fall on akira rather than the thieves at large. however, due to the public belief extending to ALL the thieves, that power was also spread out to the others, which they sacrificed to maruki while akira retained his due to his own self perception and his link to yaldabaoth. but i think that power also didn’t shift from akira to maruki because some of akira’s trust in maruki was broken - maruki admits to using akira for his research due to him being a phantom thief. the only reason he sought him out and pursued him the way he did was to get information out of him under the false pretense of helping him, and i highly doubt that akira, who has been betrayed several times by adults at this point, would appreciate that duplicity. fast forward to christmas eve and now yaldabaoth has stabbed him in the back too, another mentor figure that was supposedly helping him, and so once he is defeated, akira is NOT, consciously or otherwise, going to give up his autonomy or his power for someone else no matter their “good” intentions. he has an iron grip on whatever power he managed to claw for and he is never going to give that away to someone else again, he will decide how he uses his power and what is best of his own volition. and i think, ultimately, that’s one of the reasons why maruki’s plan is SO distasteful to him - my akira viewed it exactly as goro did, as someone else ripping away his freedom and deciding what was right for him. it disgusted and pissed him off, and so even if goro’s sacrifice was difficult, he never questioned or hesitated with his answer because maruki’s offer was so twisted and perverse to him after all the ways he and goro had suffered. he fully accepted and respected goro’s decision even if he meant he would lose him, because it IS goro’s decision, and akira will never be the one to steal another victim’s autonomy but instead he will support and celebrate whatever they wish for themselves. and so he uses his retained godhood to destroy maruki, the power that yaldabaoth and satanael have imparted in him that allow him to finish adam kadmon in a single bullet. akira has turned that power of control into the power of freedom, of everyone’s right to choose and to grow, and he would never allow that to be stolen again.

#honestly with the way my akira is #any back and forth in the third semester was ridiculous lol #he HATED maruki's nasty little world and wanted it GONE #he and goro were both constantly just like 'THIS IS STINKY' and that includes on 2/2 #it's gonna make it...really hard to accept that bad end for the thieves den bleh #BUT this was kind of a tangent sdkfsjdf still i think that was the case #with only akira retaining that power #p5 #p5r #akira kurusu #takuto maruki #p5r spoilers #persona 5 royal spoilers #Anonymous