Brief 3: Post I

The Persona Series is well known for its depth in characters and carefully designed Personas, masks that represent the characters inner thoughts, fears and wants, taking influence from literary figures to mythological Gods there is no shortage of inspiration. Personas, in-game, are demons answering the call of wielders once they overcome some certain shortcoming that is different in every instalment; and for us, big nerds, are a lot of fun to pick apart and discover exactly what they represent.

Ann Takamaki is arguably the greatest example of her Persona connecting to her journey’s development.

The Persona she begins with is Carmen, Mérimée’s novel character who became well-known through Bizet’s opera; described in-game as a capricious femme-fatale, she is a very beautiful but an incredibly dangerous woman. A charming seductress who refuses to bow to anyone, “Free she was born, and free she will die!” (Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy, 1875). Carmen’s story greatly connects to the openness of her sexuality, tempting men left and right for a night with her; while Ann is a sexual abuse survivor, mentally beaten down by men coming onto her for her dazzling foreign looks. A P.E. teacher becomes attracted to her and in order for Ann to keep her best friend on the Volleyball team, she has to do him favours that she manages to avoid for as long as she can. Ann only awakens her connection to Carmen once she refuses to bow down to him anymore, which in turn gives her the confidence to stand up against everyone who wrongs her or others.

But that’s not the end of her story. See, every Persona-wielder starts off with one certain Persona, subtly showing you, the audience, where they stands in their development. Eventually, once their development reaches their climax, they are granted another Persona, replacing the last, to display where they have reached in their egregious journey.

Proceeding on, Ann attempts to become assertively stronger by continuing her career, which was previously only a hobby, in modelling. She wants to set an example for her friends to keep working hard, to keep fighting on, just as she is, “I’m going to be a ray of light for the people of this planet.” (Shinji Yamamoto, Yuichiro Tanaka & Katsura Hashino, 2016). That’s when Ann awakens Hecate.

Hecate is the Greek Goddess of crossroads, ghosts and witchcraft, which could all connect to Ann in a metaphorical sense but in the game itself they specifically bring up the Goddess’s role in “The Scottish Play,” “She is also known to be the chief of the witches that appear in the play “Macbeth.”” (Shinji Yamamoto, Yuichiro Tanaka & Katsura Hashino, 2016). Hecate appears very little in the play but she has quite the presence; she reprimands the three witches who have been giving prophecies to the arrogant and selfish Macbeth and demands they aide her giving Macbeth illusions designed to trick him into thinking he is invincible and, possibly intentionally, predicts his demise. “And you all know, security | Is mortals' chiefest enemy.” (Williams Shakespeare, 1606). As Hecate gave Macbeth his fitting punishment, as does Ann with every criminal she sees deserving of justice.

Another exciting Persona belongs to Makoto Niijima, called Johanna.

Based on the elusive Pope Joan whom is considered to only be a hoax by some and a victim of historical erasure by others; a born Englishwoman who pretended to be a man in order to become a scholar and eventually rose to the title of the Vatican’s Pope. On the other side of the coin, you have Makoto, the student council president of Shujin Academy, tasked by the principal to discover which students are responsible for exposing their P.E. teacher. She’s an incredibly fair girl, raised to believe the law should be upheld but it wasn’t the law that stood up to persecute this man, it was criminals. She eventually learns how to shake off society's law-abiding shackles and joins the thieves for her justice, despite all the proper expectations of her principal and prosecutor sister, awakening Johanna. They’re both acutely ambitious women fitting into roles society deemed unsuitable for them because of their backgrounds, that’s why they connect.

Once she develops and grows as a person she awakens Anat, who perfectly symbolises her whole journey.

Once she develops and grows as a person she awakens Anat, who perfectly symbolises her whole journey. Anat is the Semitic Goddess of war and fertility, sister to Ba’al, who is obviously meant to represent Makoto’s sister, Sae. When Ba’al is murdered by Mot, the God of death, Anat begins hunting him down, hungry for revenge. When she finds him she doesn’t hesitate in taking his life, thus ending the cycle of death and her father promises that Ba’al will return to life. Sae and Makoto end up going through something similar, Sae is wrapped up in the competitiveness in prosecuting that she forgets why she even entered law in the first place, while Makoto does everything in her power to drag her out of this corrupt hole Sae is trapped in.

Lastly, we have Goro Akechi who is kind of a special case; when he first joins the team he already has awakened the Persona Robin Hood.

Lastly, we have Goro Akechi, who is kind of a special case; when he first joins the team he already has awakened the Persona Robin Hood. Robin Hood’s your generic everyday hero taking from the rich while giving to the poor, righting injustices along the way. Much like how Goro acts, he’s a high school detective dedicated to finding the infamous thieves to correct their wrongs and serve justice on a silver platter. Or so he says. He has this very distorted belief that he is everyone's hero, your Robin Hood, your Superman, your Hercules when in reality he’s someone much less straightforward. His true colours come to light once he betrays the team and you find Robin Hood was only a cover to make him appear more trustworthy. His true Persona is Loki, the Norse God of mischief, also known as the Trickster God. Loki is known for his shapeshifting abilities and self-preservation all pertaining to Goro Akechi, tricking everyone through his two-faced nature for his own personal gain of wanting to murder his father. Now, his father is a terrible criminal, and in the end, he does do the right thing by the thieves so he comes off as a very morally grey character, much like Loki in some myths tellings.

The Persona series is jacked packed with details such as this. Taking the time to carefully consider who would represent their characters well and how their characters could respectfully represent them.

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Reference List:

Cantoni, L., & Schwarm, B. (2013). Carmen | Opera by Bizet. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Carmen-opera-by-Bizet#ref1180852

Crowther, J. (2005). No Fear Macbeth. Retrieved from http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/page_122.html

Knight, K. (2017). Popess Joan. Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08407a.htm

New Work Encyclopaedia. (2016). Anat. Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Anat

McCoy, D. (2012-2018). Loki. Retrieved from https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/loki/