#i don't remember the last names of kazushi and mamoru

[ever-so-sleepy]

"zenkichi is just a repeat of dojima" okay? so are sojiro and futaba. sophia is aigis 2.0,,, but they still manage to find new meaning with it. persona reuses a lot of the same tropes, but often (not always) they're able to write it just differently enough you get something new

persona 4 is my favorite game. i love jb blanc (dojima va), and i am so biased to dojima and nanako. but zenkichi and akane are very similar to me and my dad. i didn't watch my mother die thank god,,, but i did lose a family member as an early teen. when i was around akane's age (14-15) i was angry, and who was easiest to blame? my dad

he HAS done bad things but at the same time, he cared. i said the same things, "my dad doesn't care about me" knowing it wasn't true. friends and family would say the same thing makoto did, "don't say that it isn't true". and while i can't speak for akane, that always pissed me off

maybe it wasn't right, but it was how i felt. my dad, like zenkichi, hadn't shown well enough that he cared. so even if i knew that he loved me that insecure, hurt part of me said he didn't. i built up this tolerance to that idea, that now i don't want my dad to apologize. i don't want him to be the better man, to grow and get better. that anger gave me comfort and some sort of peace, having something to blame for my emotions. when zenkichi reveals the truth, and apologizes anyway, akane is still just as sad. and angry

the small differences matter. akane and nanako are years apart, and they're also different people. they will, then, grieve differently. zenkichi knew who killed his wife, but he stopped chasing it because akane's life was literally threatened. dojima never stopped but he never (as far as we're aware) found out who it was. but that isn't the main cause of discourse with his daughter, it's his own fear of being a dad. imo dojima is more at fault than zenkichi. the latter obviously should have acted differently but some things were out of his control. nanako just wanted a present father

also so off topic but fuck the idea that mamoru (i think that's how it's spelled; star arcana in persona 3) is just a kazushi clone !!! they're so different and have majorly different meanings. yes atlus reuses tropes, but they don't demean the characters story and that idea doesn't even apply to these two. leave my man's alone

#this was admittedly (partially) a reason to vent about my dad #i love him he's just flawed #like zenkichi ! except zenkichi apologized #persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #zenkichi hasegawa #akane hasegawa #sophia persona 5 #persona 4 #dojima ryotaro #why isn't that a tag #it says it isn't anyways #dojima nanako #i don't remember the last names of kazushi and mamoru #persona 3 #persona 5 strikers spoilers #persona 4 spoilers #vent post #just a teensy weensy (whole lot)