All right!
It is time...
...for another full week of Dragon Reviews and (Probably) Overanalyzes SPE!
Well okay maybe minus one day...but still! Gonna be spending this week reading and reviewing SPE
and sneak in writing some refraction if i'm not too tired. And I'm all ready for it! Got mt FEELS cap and review glasses all ready.
So enough with the preamble! Here's the thirty seventh installment of Dragon Reviews and (Probably) Overanalyzes SPE. -puts on review glasses and FEELS cap- Review. STARTO!
7/30 Early Morning - Evening, Part 2
We start off with a brief but heartwaeming scene of Sokila getting her two-headed dog! Yay! Before we get Shinji actually awake and having been invited by...Rei! To a nice little café. Of course, Shinji is wondering why, much like myself, but before Rei answers, she instead talks about how his thoughts seem different and...
"...your thoughts...they have a different flavor, to them," she murmured. "The core is still there...but there are subtle yet numerous changes to the accidents..."
...
-looks at dictionary-
...okay, unless my brain is doing a brain fart again from not understanding the sentence, I think this is an error. I feel like that should've been "accents" or something...
Anyways, she was referring to his Personas, as Shinji's flashback so obviously shows. It gets a little awkward for a bit but hey that's what you get when you're dealing with things even those used to weird find weird.
A digression first though.
A lot of fusions with Matador here. A good choice considering how OP he is, at least in SMT 3.
The meme-worthy difficulty of Matador from SMT 3 is not present in Persona; for example, you only need to be level 17 to fuse Matador in P5R. I would say he belongs to the lower mid-tier Personas.
I don't know how useful he is in P5R (yet?) since I heard they nerfed Swift Strike in Royal, but in P5 I'd say he's plenty useful and good for when you can get him, even if he's actually higher leveled than in P5R (he's Level 19 in P5). He was my MVP along with Orobas during the Madarame fight thanks to his innate Swift Strike, plus the ingredients I used to make him adding other useful skills on top of it. Was able to quickly get rid of the painting bits of Madarame, two-shotting him at full health and one-shotting at "revival health", with only needing the rest to get rid of the "Absorb Phys" painting left.
Speaking of digressions, Rei and Shinji's conversation has another brief one when the former mentions about the latter's trip, which has Shinji have spiralling thoughts (ouch ouch ouch i know the feeling) that he manages to hold back and instead invite Rei to the trip. She can't, though Shinji doesn't quite believe her but she just points out that the nature of the Wild Card gets stronger with bonding with friends. But that makes him want her to come, since they're friends too, or at least he considers her his. That's when Rei actually get to reason why she called him: the revelation (heh) he had with Marie backstory dumping on him. He begins talking about it only for Rei to stop him. One, because of
pErFuMe, and two, because with everything that happened it's not exactly something she can easily talk about even without someone watching their moves. And she knows all this because she was "born" of the Metaverse.
Which well a part of me is wondering how much of the truth that is. Not saying she's lying. Just sayin' that I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to that.
Either way, Shinji once again wonders (rather reasonably) why is
he the linchpin. But he still has a journey to go through. Can't rush this kind of thing. But he will get there. Rei believes that. Shinji can't quite get why she would believe that. He doesn't have much in way of qualifications. If that was all that was needed, then he wouldn't have been picked though. And besides, Rei truly believes in him. She has "faith in him".
"...but do you have faith in yourself?" he honestly asked.
That question turns out to be armor piercing as Rei clams up and leaves, where...
...we get a flashback.
Of her as LILITH.
Talking to Naoya Todou.
Naoya.
Toudou.
And she gives him the power of the
A. T. Field.
Before we go back to the present.
With a Rei holding back any form of grieving. Why? Because:
That was all she allowed herself. Anything more...would be spitting on their faces.
(For how could one who had failed so horribly even allow herself the reprieve of grief?)
(You don't have the right to cry for them...no matter how badly you want to.)
That's why.
NAOYA'S FUCKING TIMELINE GOT FUCKING DELETED DIDN'T IT HUH?
IT DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE
ALONG WITH ALL HIS FRIENDS
AND LIKELY ALL THE PERSONA 2 CAST
AND THE TWO GAMES' POPULATIONS
HUH?
AND THAT'S WHY REI'S GRIEVING
BECAUSE EVEN WHEN (if?) EVERYTHING IS FIXED
THOSE SOULS CAN'T BE BROUGHT BACK.
BECAUSE
OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED.
honestly i'm not that surprised
idk maybe i'm more drained from the butterfly effect than i thought
I mean I could be very wrong on what happened to Naoya's timeline and souls, but that's what I'm gonna assume with the bit given to me.
BECAUSE HEY WHY NOT JUST ASSUME THE WORST 'EY???
/oh snap
//THAT AIN'T PHILEMON
///WHAT AM I GONNA DO NEXT IN THIS WACKY CROSSOVER
If you're gonna continue this wackiness, then I ask you to make Teddie badass. And have Demon Painter (or some sort of successor of his) join in on Velvet Room shenanigans. Maybe as Sokila's drawing mentor or something. I mean, come on, can you imagine the hijinks and explosions from Sokila's paintings coming to life?
Anyways.
More speculation on Perfume's identity!
P1 was... weird like that. Social Links didn't become a thing until 3, the Arcana was just the classification method. And the P1 protag was the blankest canvas possible, I can easily see them slipping...
On one hand, yeah, any human could easily slip. And Naoya's Arcana is Emperor which, reversed, can mean trying too hard to control everything and not using the authority they were granted reaponsibly. Which, well, what Perfume seems to be doing.
But I refuse to believe it's Naoya for two reasons.
One: more personally and nothing really to do with info I have noticed and that have been presented to us, is that I do
NOT want Naoya as Perfume. Because I fucking hate the
tHiiIiiIiIiIiiing.
Two: Rei seems to be grieving for Naoya. Now you could argue that could mean "the Naoya she knew died" and ended up as Perfume, but atm I'mma just assume it's because Naoya was erased because that's what I personally feel like that's the way she failed miserably. ...ok admittedly it's a not completely logic but still.
So basically, here's the total list of suspected Usurpers based on reader comments:
- Adachi
- Yui Ikari
- Philemon
- The Demiurge
- Nanashi (the SMT IV Protagonist)
- Naoya Toudou (the P1 Protagonist)
- Tatsuya (the P2:IS Protagonist)
- Shinji Ikari
- Pen-Pen
Some of y'all are close. The Usurper may or may not be on this list~
/my money's still on Hideaki Anno
//
The stupidest idea would be that it's some version of
you. Because if we're gonna go meta with Hideaki Anno, might as well add you in the running.
No it has nothing to do with my grudge against you for putting Minako through that.
Nope.
Nuh uh.
Noooooooo siree.
Okay back to story aaaand...Kenny's dealing with his dad. Uh. Yeah. Simply put it doesn't go well, starting from awkward, to his dad reasonably picking at him for his actions over the past month or so, before Kenny picks at his actions about the past years or so. Thankfully, he still gets permission to go, though not without getting hurt emotionally in the process.
/wait
//you thought this was going to be a road trip of full-blown fun times?
///FOOLS
////this is Evangelion
/////family drama comes baked in
Family drama is also baked in Persona as well so that doesn't help either.
For example we got:
Naoya in the manga with
basically having a similar siutation as Sumire.
Katsuya and Tatsuya being strained even if the former still loves the latter deeply because Katsuya has to act as both parent and brother.
Nearly all of P3's party.
P4...actually their cast has the least parent troubles. I think Rise isn't that close with her parents (i forget if she ever mentions them; i feel like she did), instead is close with her grandmother; Yu is distant with his parents; and Dojima and Nanako were somewhat until Yu came along.
P5. Goro. I mean we have other examples but of course I was gonna mention him mainly.
Calling it now if the persona onsen scene does occure, the boys will get hit with an all out attack.
I hope not. I'm very much sick of the Persona Onsen scenes. Specially after Strikers...
Y'know sometimes I feel bad that while I do get why the onsen scenes are bad, particularly Strikers, but I can't help but actually really like the onsen scene from Persona 3. Maybe it's because of how it's presented in the Portable version, maybe it's because I just haven't had seen that many onsen scenes, but despite it apparently being a "cliché" and a very stupid misunderstanding, I still really like it. You could totally avoid the "brush with icy death" in the male route by scaring Yukari off who then convinces the rest to not look into finding them, and in the female route, you could either out the boys...or help them get out, also involving scaring Yukari. Idk I just had a lot of fun doing the onsen scene in P3. P4 I'm more neutral about, partially because of the line going something along the lines of "courage is not going to help you in this situation!". Strikers though is where I'm just cringing at it instead of hating it. You'd think of all the casts, the P5 would know none of the boys would really peep on them on purpose, especially considering everyone knows what Ann has been through.
I am looking forward to
writing the Strikers onsen scene eventually though. Because you can bet Aki going to town with the opportunity to literally pounce on her brother. And tease the both the boys and the girls.
Now we got Toji and Mana getting permission from Sae and Misato. That's easy enough. Especially once RyuKing contributes to it by tagging along with two others. Who those two others are we'll have to wait and see. As for the last member of the trip, it's Mayumi, who...
"...I don't want to be difficult...just..."
An inquisitive cat, sniffing at a hole leading underground...only to yowl as a great beast emerged, surrounding her in its sinuous coils.
"...let me have this..."
The beast withdrew into the darkness, dragging the struggling cat with it.
"...just one thing..."
The beast stopped; the cat knew it as a stay of execution, and simply ceased to struggle.
"...please...?"
Silence.
The beast's coils loosened, and the cat immediately wiggled out, limping away into the daylight.
"...thank you..."
Wait.
WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT.
I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING ABOUT MAYUMI BECAUSE OF ONE OF THE FICS I READ
FUCK
THAT WAS AN ANGEL IN HER HEAD WASN'T IT
FUCK
AND HER FAMILY SITUATION JUST MAKES ME THINK OF KANARU FROM TRINITY SOUL EVEN IF I DOUBT IT'S THE SAME OR EVEN THAT SIMILAR
FUCK
Ahem. Anyways. Mayumi gets both "permission" from the mystery within and from her parents. Which, well, hey at least she was allowed. And she's excited for the trip. So that's one bright side to all of this.
...
still very worried that "definitely not an angel" might kill her just like in that fic that i remembered
i think
all i remember she dies because of an angel in her okay
Meanwhile Shinji is bored out of his mind for a good while, sitting in The Tube™. Because Ritsuko is grumpy. And then she gets even
more grumpy because she just found out about Pilate's messaging...thanks to her sending a rather taunting text over Ritsuko's attempts to figure it out before she sent it. That, however, leads to Shinji revealing one of the reasons he agreed to continue the interactions and keep them secret is because he wanted to know more about his mother, which then leads to Ritsuko get even more grumpy (like for real) as she basically calls Shinji, and a few certain other people, "stupid" for dwelling over the past which cannot be changed. That eventually reveals to Shinji about what the MAGI in this branch of NERV are...or rather who: Ritsuko's mother. Okay not
exactly but you get the idea.
As they talk about it though, it only just occured to me that the names we saw from when Rei went to the "secret dead spot" (Herod, Pilate and Sophia) are not matching with what Ritsuko knows the names of for the MAGI (Balthasar, Melchior and Casper). I...don't have any idea what that means, but it's something I'm gonna note is all. Also I guess it should've been obvious but still.
Shinji is awed by Ritsuko's explanation on how the MAGI allows cognitive tunneling (which is pretty genius), but that leads to him expressing his condolences...to an even more grumpy Ritsuko who doesn't care.
And pointing out Shinji didn't know her either.
...look i know the timing of when i'm reading this and when i found out about a certain someone's death is coincidence
but i still can't help but go
"for real?"
because the past couple days have just been a bunch of coincidences piled on top of each for me
Ahem. Anyways. Ritsuko's not quite done with talking about death though, as Shinji wonders why is she treating it so casually. And it's simple: it's a fact. Why deny it? Especially when you could focus on the living instead of the dead. Which. Well. On one hand I can agree with the sentiment of not getting bogged down by death so much all because you can't let go and thus you can't enjoy life anymore since it can be unhealthy. But on the other hand I don't think it should be treated that casually. Or maybe more specifically in this case, the past. Because without what happened before, we wouldn't have reached where we are now.
Brief asides.
She reached for a cigarette cartoon in her coat and promptly lit up a Seven Suns brand.
I have a feeling this brand popped up before or it's a real (copyright friendly version) brand, but I can't help but think "Seven Sisters High School".
He turned his head, trying to look at the doctor from his perspective; she was huddled behind her computer terminal, hunched over with visible anger. "...what's wrong."
I'm assuming that's supposed to be a "?", but I have a feeling it might also be fine? Idk. I'm too lazy to look this up right now.
Meanwhile, we got Ren holding back his laughter as he's meeting with...
Goro Akechi frowned in the way that was natural for him. "What idiotic thing are you laughing about now?"
Akechiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
Ahem.
"Oh, nothing in particular," he said, looking at the 'GET SMOKED' embroidered in big yellow letters along the front of Akechi's cap.
OH MY FUCKING GOD AKECHI YOU
DORK. WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND PICKING HATS THAT MAKE YOU LOOK SO DORKY TO ME?
"No, as a matter of fact I don't," Akechi snidely responded. "Why, it almost seems as if 'teammates' and 'friends' are a burden."
Ref!Akira: You know that includes you, right?
Ren snorted, letting a bit of his Joker persona (heh, pun) slip through. "Yeah yeah, you've done this song and dance before. Nobody's buying it, Mister Warden."
Ref!Akira: Least of all me.
"And it's a role I play to perfection, as far as everyone else is concerned."
Ref!Akira: Uh huh. Sure. And I have 20/20 vision.
Anyways. Ren gives his reasons for being the chaperone and driver: as a break for himself as well. He then asks if Akechi "changed his mind" about something, and it turns out it seemed to be about his part in this game and his plans, which the answer is "no".
The angry (because really, an Akechi who didn't have some element of anger within him was simply...not Akechi) boy's eyes narrowed.
Because Akechi is an angy tsundere boi. Of course he gets angry often.
Anyways (again). Basically the reason it's a "no" is because of security, and they need all the security they can get considering
pErFuMe. Which was why Akechi
really didn't like dealing with Ren and his friends. Speaking of...one of them is coming along for the trip! That being his best friend, RyuKing! Looks like your reason is in vain Ren! Because of course it was. Akechi attempts to throw another jab at him with that, but Ren is a troll himself and knows the best counter is simply being calm and thus now Akechi is a Grumpy-kechi.
And then flashback to THAT day.
The day before the Day of Fates.
February 2nd.
And it's just
ooooouuuuuuuuuch...
And also briefly amusing because "small potatoes", aka the option that I'm 99% sure it was changed later.
Before Ren goes "life sucks", which is something Akechi, of course, knows very well. Even more so now because his dad's gonna make some moves soon. And he's gonna fight every second. Ren points out it could be as not as bad in this lifetime...buuuut well, while I'm more on Ren's side on that, so far Shido's has not shown any signs of being any better than the one version most of us know about. So I'm with Akechi on this one, because of course he doesn't think his father would be better, cynical as he is.
"And you've got good reason to be, Shishi," he cracked with a grin.
AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THERE IT IIIIIIIIIISSS.
Goro Akechi – whose 'real' name in this life was Shimaru Shido – scowled. "I will punch you if you call me that again."
And there's the expected response.
"Hey, at least the lion imagery is somewhat noble. I could be way crueler about it." The wonders of multiple meanings and wordplay. "But I'm a nice guy, so I won't."
Ref!Akira: :3
Ref!Akechi: Aki...spoilers...
Ref!Akira: I didn't say anything!
Ref!Akechi: You were thinking it.
Ref!Akira: But I didn't say anything, right?
Ref!Akechi: -long sigh-
Anyways (again ×2!). With that, Akeci stands to leave, telling Ren he's paid for everything. Ren wishes him well, genuinely, despite and because of their relationship. Akechi being Akechi though brushes it off and reminds Ren he needs that more than him since he has to deal with several "brats".
"So charming. I'll make sure to keep you in mind as a babysitter if I ever have kids."
Ref!Akira: -dies laughing-
i almost want this version of you to babysit our kids.
Ref!Akechi: Please, Aki, be merciful...
He's not gonna survive one minute with even
one of them.
Ref!Akira: Exactly! It'll be fun!
Ref!Akechi: -long but fond sigh-
Anyways (again ×3!), Akechi bolts off, Joker gets a win...which he'll take because now he has to prepare for being so near RyuKing for a reaaaaal long time as the day ends.
It's not the end of this review though!
/so yeah
//definitely a Haru x Joker promoter
///because she's too sweet
Honestly I also like ShuHaru(? I assume it's called that like with ShuAke, ShuAnn, ShuMako, ShuTaba, etc. etc.) as a ship too. Because yes Haru deserves everything. Unfortunately I'll have to deal with her heartbreak because I just...idk just prefer Ren with Ann more (plus his rank 9 with Ann is pretty much my fav of the romance rank 9's in P5; did you hear his little laugh? it's so preciouuuuusssss). Though I partially blame fics for that. XP
No wonder Ren laughed. Goro looks entirely ridiculous. He makes me think of a Light Yagami trying to go incognito somewhere.
Have you
seen his dancing outfits? Just look at them! His "P4D" outfit is him in a red jacket with gold stars, a necklace that looks like a winged emblem with an "A" on it and a black cap that has "HERO" written on it. His "P5D" outfit is pompous as fuck with a feather collared jacket(?) and fedora. Both of them make him look like such a
dork to me. I mean his P5D suit does look stylish but
those feathers man. They crack me up.
So it was no surprise...okay more a pleasant but reasonable surprise when it turned out Akechi was wearing a red "GET SMOKED" cap.
Also because he has no idea he's wearing the hat that Shinya Oda wore in a previous life.
Also this. This adds the comedy. Especially the association with guns for both of them.
It seems no matter the universe, Ren and Goro have a similar relation.
Ref!Ren: Well he
is fun to tease. :3
Ref!Akira: Very.
Ref!Akechi:
uuugggghhhhh...
Ref!Akira: I love you too, my knight.
And with that, spoiler dodge: activate!
