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Persona Community Thread: The Butterfly Effect

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cj_iwakura

Member
I've always lamented over the fact that Yu didn't get a shadow in the original P4 game. I know WHY it was done (Persona = Shadow, Izanagi was already obtained when he
shook hands with izanami
he's special, etc) but it's still a shame! They could have done what they did with Shadow Tatsuya.

I figured
Adachi was meant to represent his shadow.
 

Levito

Banned
Did you miss how they are not entirely truthful and twist the meaning of what they are saying into something else many times?

Naoto's shadows revolved almost entirely around "the procedure" to transform her into a man. The big revelation during Naoto's rescue is that she's was in fact, a woman. So I don't see how you can chalk that up solely to 'the shadow was lying'. Mean, no one says "Oh Chie doesn't really think those things about Yukiko, it was just her shadow trying to antagonise her!" The only time this excuse comes up is with Naoto and Kanji because it sends very mixed and potentially troubling messages.

The whole point of the shadow confrontations, and they things they said was the characters confronting their inner struggles/things they were rejecting. Could it just be a gender roles thing? Of course, but these things shouldn't be left up to interpretation within a story.


But even then we don't even need the shadow to point out how poorly Atlus handled this. Again I can refer to the fact that the player makes the choice FOR Naoto whether she's male or female, that's a choice that should never be made for anyone other than the person struggling with their identity.

One of the biggest things(if not the biggest thing) trans people struggle with is identity and the fact that people are always decideing for them what gender they belong to.
Which is why a lot of people feel Naoto's arc and social link is all over the place.

Utlimately we know Naoto isn't trans, but aspects of her character are handled poorly, and again send mixed messages.

I'm almost certain it's a gender roles thing. There's so much evidence supporting it.

And there's a ton of evidence to suggest otherwise too. THAT'S THE PROBLEM, we shouldn't still be arguing about these things 5 years after the game came out. Atlus needs to be up front with something like this.



Ultimately we're talking about the company that created "funky student" in Persona 4, I don't think sensitivity is always at the forefront of the writing process with them. :p
 

PK Gaming

Member
Ultimately we're talking about the company that created "funky student" in Persona 3, I don't think sensitivity is always at the forefront of the writing process with them. :p

Wait, wait, wait, WAIT.

1. Wasn't he from Persona 4?
2. Funky student is awesome, and totally not racist in any way.
 

jello44

Chie is the worst waifu
I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!

GAO6I4y.jpg
 

PK Gaming

Member
P5's gonna star Funky Student and focus on his adventures in college. His Persona will be Afro Samurai because f*ck logic.

I can see it now.

Persona 4: The Ultimate Riddle

The beginning of the game would have our hero (name: Funky student) quitting Junes after getting tired of dealing with shit from the staff. We'd then learn that he couldn't get into a good school (should have been studying instead of riddling with Yu smh). After falling asleep near a TV at Junes (he begged for his job back), he's visited by none other than Igor! He's then tasked with saving Inaba from another impending trial. A mysterious force (insert Japanese god here) is hell bent on forcing humanity to solve riddles, and only Funky student and his new found power can stop the madness.

Release date: Before Persona 5.
 

Squire

Banned
Wait, wait, wait, WAIT.

1. Wasn't he from Persona 4?
2. Funky student is awesome, and totally not racist in any way.

Yeah he's P4, and he's totally awesome.

I hope you two are being sarcastic. Funky student is racist without question. Caricature of a stereotypical '70s era black dude? Textbook racism. I fell in love with the game, but funky student annoyed the shit out of me on first contact.
 

PK Gaming

Member
I hope you two are being sarcastic. Funky student is racist without question. Caricature of a stereotypical '70s era black dude? Textbook racism. I fell in love with the game, but funky student annoyed the shit out of me on first contact.

I'm dead serious. I have an extraordinarily difficult time processing that claim. Like, I can find 0 reasons for being offended by Funky Student at all. (yes, i'm black, sorry scrafty i'm not your true clone) An afro wearing, humorous, intelligent student with a rhythm and a massive lexicon is suddenly racist? Why? How?

In fact, I think the claim that character who speaks in urban slang = racist towards black people, is in fact, implicit racism towards black people itself. In any case, one of my biggest pet peeves is having a bunch of people deciding what is and what isn't racist for me.

Sorry if I brought down the mood, but you guys just hit my weakness and i'm knocked down.
 

Trigger

Member
Funky student seems more like an affectionate parody of the whole jive turkey archetype than outright racism IMO. As an African-American
who wears an afro :p
I wasn't offended.
 

Squire

Banned
Funky student seems more like an affectionate parody of the whole jive turkey archetype than outright racism IMO. As an African-American
who wears an afro :p
I wasn't offended.

I would say stereotype, but I think yours is a fair view. Obviously it didn't bother me enough to stop playing the game, but I do think it's a glaring inclusion.

There's a peculiarity to funky student that I would expect anyone with a decent amount of social awareness to pick up on and understand why it would bother some, though admittedly I often forget some millenials live in a La-La land where racism no longer exists and minorities are self-hating and touchy.

My bad.
 

PK Gaming

Member
You're dead wrong, too.

Lord, have mercy.

I like you, and I respect you and your opinion, but No. No no no no no. God no.

I don't take offense at the fact that Funky Student has an afro or speaks in slang. At worst, he's just superficial stereotype being applied to a japanese character, but that in itself is not racist, because context is important. Funky Student is a funny, likeable, interesting and unique character. He adds to the whole game experience, he doesn't detract from it.

If you think he's offensive to black people, by all means keep thinking that. As for me? I don't think he's offensive in the least bit.
 
(yes, i'm black, sorry scrafty i'm not your true clone)

I knew that. I've always known I was an imperfect clone; they must have screwed up my skin pigment somewhere along the line ;)

But yeah; Funky Student's pretty clearly a cheeky jab at mid-20th century African-American stereotypes, not a racist caricature. He'd only be racist if he embodied extremely negative aspects which were attributed by the game to his ethnicity, but he doesn't. Apu in The Simpsons is a parody of Indian-American stereotypes and yet you don't see anyone calling him racist.
 

PK Gaming

Member
I would say stereotype, but I think yours is a fair view. Obviously it didn't bother me enough to stop playing the game, but I do think it's a glaring inclusion.

There's a peculiarity to funky student that I would expect anyone with a decent amount of social awareness to pick up on and understand why it would bother some, though admittedly I often forget some millenials live in a La-La land where racism no longer exists and minorities are self-hating and touchy.

My bad.

Dude, what's your damage?

You don't know me and what i've experience, but you have the gall to insinuate that i'm oblivious to racism? Have you ever even directly experienced racism before? Have you run home crying from school because a bunch of schools picked on you / excluded you because you were different? Have you been turned girls who don't date black dudes? I don't need your goddamn condescension bro, thanks.

At the end of the day, you're offended by a character in a game. To quote a certain someone "well so fucking what?"
Yep. In both the sloppy execution and the audience' own failure to pick up on what's been put down.
And it all comes together.
 
I would say stereotype, but I think yours is a fair view. Obviously it didn't bother me enough to stop playing the game, but I do think it's a glaring inclusion.

There's a peculiarity to funky student that I would expect anyone with a decent amount of social awareness to pick up on and understand why it would bother some, though admittedly I often forget some millenials live in a La-La land where racism no longer exists and minorities are self-hating and touchy.

My bad.

Yep. In both the sloppy execution and the audience' own failure to pick up on what's been put down.

37162448.jpg


Can we go back to being happy and discussing exciting things? I don't think either side is going to budge at this point.
 
Going off on a tangent here but...

Man, I knew I'd heard of a Greek story that was like that Izanagi myth, but I had no idea it was about Orpheus. Orpheus goes to Hades to bring back his wife from the dead, but then ends up losing her because he turns back to look before he exits. Just realised this connection. Wonder why they chose these deities to be the protagonists' first personas? Izanagi's makes sense because of the creation myth. Maybe it's simply because their actions of doubting and looking back were foolish?
 

PK Gaming

Member
(cools off)

Yeah i'm done too.

No point in having discussion with someone who treats us like naive children, as if we don't know any better.

======

ANYWAY

tumblr_mnqi74o1XT1rzkxhio4_250.gif
 

Trigger

Member
Going off on a tangent here but...

Man, I knew I'd heard of a Greek story that was like that Izanagi myth, but I had no idea it was about Orpheus. Orpheus goes to Hades to bring back his wife from the dead, but then ends up losing her because he turns back to look before he exits. Just realised this connection. Wonder why they chose these deities to be the protagonists' first personas? Izanagi's makes sense because of the creation myth. Maybe it's simply because their actions of doubting and looking back were foolish?

I think so yeah. I remember reading a pretty good analysis on the connection between the nature of the TV world and the Izanagi myth, but I can't recall it. I hope P5 uses something other than Asian/Greek pantheons for inspiration. Let's go all in on Indian or Egyptian mythos next pls.
 
Going off on a tangent here but...

Man, I knew I'd heard of a Greek story that was like that Izanagi myth, but I had no idea it was about Orpheus. Orpheus goes to Hades to bring back his wife from the dead, but then ends up losing her because he turns back to look before he exits. Just realised this connection. Wonder why they chose these deities to be the protagonists' first personas? Izanagi's makes sense because of the creation myth. Maybe it's simply because their actions of doubting and looking back were foolish?

I think Orpheus has more to do with the ideas of inevitability and fate in P3.

Or it's just foreshadowing that no matter how long or far Liz travels, MC isn't coming back
 
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