Not So Charming
Aug. 16th, 2015 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerThat, and it took a while for any of the characters to really grow on me. Watching at least 2 playthroughs, in fact, complete with EVERY SINGLE TARTARUS SHADOW FIGHT. ...it was nice when homeworking. I liked Akihiko-senpai, but with Male MC you didn't even get to interact with him much. Junpei came across as a whinier/more obviously jealous version of Yosuke, Yukari as a mix between the parts of Rise, Yukiko, and Chie that I didn't like. Aigis was awesome, but she didn't even come in for a while. I hear Ken-kun is a lot angrier/more annoying brat in English version than in the Japanese version, but I can't really check this. Mitsuru came across as the ice queen who didn't care about anybody. Fuuka...okay, can't say anything about Fuuka, Fuuka is awesome. Tech-savvy gamer girls for the win. And you didn't really get much of a personality from Korumaru. Shinji was just kind of cold and dismissing everyone because he didn't want anyone close as he was dying.
One of the most awesome OCs kind of wasn't there for long. Takeharu Kirijo. Dude is awesome and I want to play a younger version of him on something at some point. Not that that'll ever happen, but he's probably going to show up in some form in Innocent Sin Online. Because he's awesome. (Also I just realized I casually killed him offscreen before Personatown ever started. .../sadface. Necessary, but /sadface.)
P3P, at least the FeMC route (I've been playing that a) because that's what I ended up playing in the game marathon for charity thing a while back and b) it's content I haven't actually seen 100% through yet), does well at fixing this complaint. Getting to hang out with your fellow teamies does pretty well at making you feel like more of a team. (They're still a little less cohesive as a team, but they can't fix everything. Nor should they. It feels realistic, and it's a different story sort of thing. Just because it's not completely my cup of tea doesn't mean a lot of people don't love it. Something else that screams team dynamic is scenes where the Inaba IT end up studying or hanging out in the HQ and they hint that it's been done a million times before just to hang out. P4 Arena gives some good insight into interactions and stuff, and while, yeah, it shows the P3 team is actually a team by that point, that all happens long after the events of P3. P4 has this strong team dynamic from the get-go there.) Team SLs allow you to see more of the characters, so Junpei is actually a bro (for the most part, but he's actually working through it) and...well, haven't been hanging out with Yukari much, but I will...I've just kind of been neglecting her ever since the Aki & Fuuka SLs became available, and Shinji is more nuanced, and so is Mitsuru, and Ken...well, haven't hung out with him much either. My excuse there is that the option as a high schooler to flirt shamelessly with an elementary school kid wigs me out a little.
Takeharu Kirijo remains absolutely awesome. You could actually have an origin story game with him & Daidara & Shiroku...uh, and that one lady who fuses Personas into weapons...seriously, I would buy that game. I have no idea how it would fit into timelines or anything, but it would be awesome and I WANT THAT GAME. .../ahem. I don't need to talk more before the story than the actual story.
Main Points: Persona 4 Playthrough Mild AU
Chapter Summary: Souji's jealousy, Rise, and Shadows with Confusion.
Word Count: 793
Rating: T
Note: ...Some spoilers for P3. Given my thing above and probably content below, spoilers for team members, as usual.
Souji’s only ever been jealous of Rise...and Shadows with Confusion. He’d never been jealous before he’d developed his little crush on Yosuke. But then, before Inaba, in general he hadn’t had anything to lose.
He knows that it’s a silly emotion. Is angry that it’s not rational, that another person (much less a Shadow) isn’t going to be what drives Yosuke away. In the end, if anything it’ll be Yosuke who drives Yosuke away. Other than showing him that he’s not going to immediately get treated like a leper the second anyone so much as suspects he likes a guy (Souji, no less, and if certain sources were telling the truth it’s actually pretty common and no one would be especially surprised if they found others in the same situation) and that it’s not a problem to really express what he feels, there’s not really much Souji can do.
Yosuke wouldn’t shut up about Rise, at the beginning, and even when he’d stopped being obvious about it, he’d still been paying a little too much attention to her. He’d stopped, but it’d probably taken an intervention via Yukiko or Chie to actually get him to realize how much it’d hurt.
Yosuke had taken a stand and talked to Rise, letting her know that she was out of line. So Souji’s no longer as worried about that front. That took a lot of courage to do, and for a guy like Yosuke it’s no empty gesture.
The Amorous Snake was worse. Watching Yosuke’s eyes glaze over and take on a serious, loving look. Charge Souji with a controlled rage that he couldn’t remember having seen other than from Yosuke’s Shadow. It’s, oddly enough, not the worst thing to have the one he loves trying to kill him. It’s worse knowing that a spell could be enough to take Yosuke away, and even though status effects have always worn off before, it doesn’t mean that they might not next time. He makes sure he always has a Persona with Patra or an Amrita Soda and Yukiko with him, just to be careful.
They don’t actually know it, but they actually take it better than the Persona team from Gekkoukan. The terminology used is different. Labeling the status effect as Charm or Confusion given its result makes a fair amount of sense, and it’s not like they’d ever met to compare notes. The SEES team used mainly terminology that had been developed by Kirijo researchers, while the Inaba Investigation Team came up with names of Shadows while sitting in the food court, eating and occasionally teasing as they discussed the case. Some things are the same for all wielding Personas and fighting Shadows. Some things aren’t.
Maybe it’s the fact that, for the most part, they have more of a sense of team cohesion. The SEES team is a little less of a team and more of a collection of people fighting for the same cause. It doesn’t help that they don’t all trust each other, or that they have different agendas, or that they don’t really hang out as a team outside of battle. (They actually develop the greatest closeness as a team after they lose some of their members.) The Inaba Investigation Team may seem like it’s not a united force when they tease, but they trust each other in battle. They’ll without hesitation throw themselves in harm’s way for another team member (mostly Souji, but the others too) and exhaust themselves casting spells to defeat the threatening Shadows or heal the others. More than that, they’ll help the others out if they have a problem, even if they might tease them first, and they’ll probably go far out of their way to help out, even if it inconveniences them.
Both that and the previous fact, that the Charm doesn’t bother the Inaba IT as much, are probably due to one simple difference: the SEES team definitely faced their fears and grew as people, there’s no doubt about that, but the Persona-Users from Inaba had to face their Shadows. And they weren’t alone when doing so. A part of their mind had attacked their friends. Conversely, being attacked by their friends or by a part of their friends wasn’t anything new. There’s no blame or fear, just the need to fight until the other comes to their senses and the battle is over.
The Inaba IT is often oblivious. Souji is lucky, though. Since whatever happened with Yosuke, the Prince of Junes has been paying more attention to the team’s Leader, and the affection he’s been showing, all the more precious for the fact that Yosuke doesn’t find it easy, has done well at making the jealousy vanish like it’s just a Shadow’s ailment.
