#and hidetoshi's is Being A Hardass Has No Downsides | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

all-pacas · 3 months

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anyway i feel like p3's social links are a bit all of the place - later games definitely polish them better - but since i've been playing the remake i've been trying to figure out why.

tonally, they are all over the place, and i think later games do a much better job with tying the Tarot Theme to the storyline. all social links always require you telling the person what they want to hear, but p3 is silly about it. tell the jock to ignore his health and injuries! encourage the friend to break the law! -- between that and the tonal whiplash, it's just. weird.

but i think i figured out the theme, and i don't know why i even had to think about it, because it's the same theme of the entire game: Accepting Ends.

accepting change. accepting death. it comes up in every social link in one way or another. a character is living or acting in a certain way, and either they have to face a huge change, or they're living in reaction to it without accepting it.

Kazushi and Mamoru both want to excel in sports, and are in denial over the fact that for both of them, those dreams are ending. Kazushi's injury can't keep going untreated; Mamoru's family needs him to work.

Maiko is in the midst of her parents divorce, and doing everything she can to prevent and ignore it.

Bebe has to leave Japan, but thinks that if he works really hard, he can stay.

Keisuke is torn between the path he's expected to take and the path he really wants, although interestingly, the two swap places completely during his story.

Other times, the change has already happened: Bunkichi and Mitsuko have already lost their son, but are still struggling with it and clinging to his memorial.

Mutatsu lost his family, and is pretending he doesn't want them back.

Nozomi is drowning himself in food and denial instead of coping with his brother's (food related) death.

It's a bit more subtle here and there. Yoko's "accepting of change" is actually a positive (as fits the Strength arcana): she's discovering her calling, even if she's slow to embrace it. Kenji and Maya both think everything is going great, only to discover the truth at the last second and that the story isn't what they believed.

Akinari is actively dying and knows it, but is struggling with accepting it. He's more or less the thesis statement of the game in social link form: you WILL die, things WILL end, sometimes none of your dreams work out and you have to ADAPT. Make the best of it. Memento Mori!

#persona 3 reload #persona 3 #and then you have the student council #chihiro's character arc is being a Cute Anime Girl #and hidetoshi's is Being A Hardass Has No Downsides #it's not a perfect game ahaha let me have this

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