How Persona 5 Royal Teaches Us To Find Meaning in Suffering

There is a Persona 4 Spoiler at around 0:40 seconds so skip to around 1:00 if you haven't played it yet.

The third semester of Persona 5 Royal manages to elevate an already incredible game beyond what I could have ever imagined. This video examines what Maruki and Akechi show us about what it means to live a meaningful life.

Music Used:

Persona 5 Royal: Throw Away Your Mask
Persona 5: Beneath the Mask
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition: Satorl Marsh Night
Persona 5: Sunset Bridge
Persona 5: Day of Sisters
Persona 5 Royal: I Believe

#Persona5Royal #P5R #Persona5

[isapu]

4:36 this is where I disagree

Sumire would have improved greatly if Maruki stuck to conventional therapy, methods or used his power to inhance them rather than forging his own path.
Especially since he did not actually address Sumire's core problem. Sumire was probably clinically depressed long before her sister's death.

I think this is why pretending to be Kazumi didn't work.

[daartz]

If you think of taking maruki's way just think of Edward Elric last quote " There's no such thing as a painlessness lesson, they just don't exist. Sacrifices are necessary. You can't gain anything without losing something first. Although...if you can endure that pain and walk from it, you'll find that you now have a heart strong enough to overcome any obstacle. Yeah... a heart made of Fullmetal."

[jocelynschreppler]

I did not wake up this morning thinking I'd write a whole essay in the YouTube comments.

I recognize that this video is meant as an analysis solely for Maruki and the third semester arc of P5R, but its structure compares it to the original game and its antagonist in a (wrongly, imo) dismissive manner. Maruki was a well done villain and I buy into this interpretation of his character, motives, and the message the game presents regarding his arc. But you open and close the topic expressing a fundamental misunderstanding of Yaldabaoth's place in this story, despite remarking on the major building blocks that form his role. From how this video explains Maruki and his role, I feel this stems from viewing the game's critiques through an individualistic lens, rather than a systemic one, the same mistake the Phantom Thieves themeselves come to realize. I believe that while Maruki's arc was smart, interesting, and a pleasure to play, it doesn't compare to the original end sequence immediately beforehand with Yaldabaoth, and that the game's core themes as recognized by this video resonate stronger with the original ending.

Persona 5 focuses around "rebellion against an unjust status quo, " which is something the Phantom Thieves continually grow to understand throughout the story. This is definitionally a systemic topic, and so trying to critique the game's delivery through its individual antagonists isn't only ineffective, but misses the point entirely. This is something the Phantom Thieves themselves are forced to realize as the game accelerates to its finale. The video remarks that "most of the villains in Persona 5 were generally just evil for the sake of being evil, " but an analysis that stops here condenses everything revealed from the Shido's defeat onwards as "Yaldabaoth was the true baddie the whole time." If that's the only thing taken away, then I'd have to agree that Yaldabaoth was underwhelming. It's a good thing the plot's twist was so much more than that.

The near-endgame sequence in the Prison of Regression and Velvet Room immediately after shows what this video's framework for analysis fails to acknowledge: that the the Thieves' reduction of the unjust status quo to individuals with malicious intent was shortsighted. The Velvet Room events specifically go multiple steps further. First, they reveal that not only was the Phantom Thieves' rebellion misdirected, but that it was actually intended by the system they wished to rebel against, the system imposed by Yaldabaoth. Second, the regathering of the team hands us the understanding necessary to move forwards, with Makoto's scene in particular hitting it home. "Victory against a single criminal is meaningless. The true enemy is society itself." Her realization that no individual person, but a system, had defined the rules and direction of her life as well as others, is what reignites her rebellion and frees her from her prison. The god she goes on to fight in the name of that rebellion was literally birthed by the masses as a whole, willingly.

I find it impossible to look at the endgame of Persona 5 and walk away with the understanding that Yaldabaoth was just a pure evil twist villain, and that the adult antagonists were too flat to make up for it. Yaldabaoth was society's evils personified (heh, persona-fied). The adult antagonists were flat on their own merits, but they all lived in a system that encouraged their initially problematic behavior to flourish. Kamoshida got away with abuse because his employers were forced to only care about prestige and cover the tracks of his wake. Madarame maximized profit over talent because the art world rewarded financial connections over the art itself. Kaneshiro could only extort students because society would punish the students for falling for the trap instead of the mafia for blackmail. Okumura abused his employees because capitalism rewards that behavior. Sae prepared a false case because the beaurocracy and propagandistic pressure the she faced from the SIU offered no alternative. Shido murdered Wakaba, Okumura, and others, gaslighting their family along the way, because politics encouraged corruption and sabatoge over the honest methods of Yoshida. These antagonists then go on to play the further symbolic role of failed struggles against society when we learn how they broke free of the Prison of Regression. They wind up right back in it because they only tried to live on top of the system instead of challenge it. They were thrown back in the prison by the Thieves, whose formation and actions were the will of Yaldabaoth in the first place.

Yaldabaoth is a systemic enemy, designed to be the final confrontation of heroes who wish to fight against a systemic issue. I love Maruki's role in Royal and this video has helped me solidify my understanding of it and its relation to the core game, giving me far greater joy in experiencing it. But the way he is contrasted to a reductive, dismissive representation of Yaldabaoth and the adult antagonists does the game a disservice, as well as blinds us to taking Maruki's analysis to the next step. We can't compare the starkly different buildups and executions of totalitarianism Yaldabaoth and Maruki provide. I really encourage a stronger look at Yaldabaoth and the themes of Persona 5 if we want a full understanding of how Maruki's philosophy fits into it all.

[mageyplss]

Maruki is a wonderfully written character, & his Confidant is not only very useful but even a little heartbreaking

[AlexBermann]

That's a very interesting perspective. Personally, I was convinced that accepting Marukis world was the right choice and the implications of the game did not make me reconsider that stance. After I chose to rebel to see what happens, I had the opportunity to look closer at what Maruki did.
When you talk with various NPCs, you don't just see them avoiding tragedies, they live a life where everything goes their way - and they notice. They stop striving for anything and also quickly stop appreciating what good that world has to offer because of that. Even when you look at his therapy sessions, his approach is deeply wrong. He strives to solve the problems for his patients which is not the job of a counselor. The job of a counselor is to enable people to help themselves. Maruki doesn't do that. Out of compassion, he infantilizes people.
One thing that is very relevant to this interpretation is his palace. One thing about the story about the Garden of Eden is that there is a big paradox there: if you live in perfect tranquility and happiness, why would it be possible to eat the forbidden fruit? Also, why is there a forbidden fruit to begin with? The answer s simple: when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and could no longer stay in Eden, this was part of humanities Genesis, it essentially is a coming of age story. Maruki sees himelf as God in this story, but he doesn't have the courage to let people out of the garden because he knows how cruel the world outside can be. He's a loving, but overbearing and clingy father.

As for the interpretation of Camus: I would argue that absurdism would have been the easiest way for this Utopia to work out. Even if you don't think that Marukis world is real, even if it has no meaning and even if giving your best is completely useless, you can still do it.

[Kitsunary]

I think my problem has to do more with the perception of happiness. From personal experience, even when nothing is wrong, it won't necessarily mean I'm happy. If everything went my way, I'd be happier in the short term, but in the long term it would no longer matter because it would just become the new normal and would no longer make me happy. Besides this, different people need different things to be happy, especially if they are goal or challenge oriented (something Maruki advises against since it could lead to failure). In any case where granting the wish Maruki thinks will make someone happy is not enough, or any other problem arises, he brainwashes them to be someone that will be happy regardless (the palace's "behavioral therapy").

[TobiDyLetsPlay]

oh the third Semester...
after the events in the Shido Palace, i knew something is wrong when Akechi-kun stood infront of me,
i thought ''How?! You should be dead!'' and started to quetion everything i encountered,
after Christmas eve with Futaba-chan nothing was the same...

Giving a person the chance to live out his or her dreams and desires without any doubt sounds like a dream but in reality its a nightmare, knowingly living a lie, created by a gentle Madman like Maruki who couldn't accept the truth about his lost love is just wrong to me,

Loss, Death, Failing - these things are part of a human's life, Experiences which are essential to make during ones lifetime, just overpainting them with lies is not right...

it's not written if the Acceptance of Marukis reality is ''the bad Ending'' per se, but for me, living a lie, KNOWINGLY, its not to live at all,
breaking out from this massive Distortion of Reality is the real true ending in my opinion!

[CorruptedFile]

I wouldn’t say that the villains of base persona five lacked depth, especially when you realize that the core question the phantom thieves are fighting against in Maruki’s has already been told before in the base game. There is a reason that multiple parallels can be drawn between Maruki’s and Yaldabauth’s goals/realities. This is because one vital thing is taken away in both of these realities, Free Will. Yaldabauth wanted to regress humanity into sloth to grant everyone’s desires, and Maruki wanted to remove pain. The only thing they required to do so was each individual’s free will. That was the core idea the phantom thieves were fighting for, to make the decision for them selves weather it was a good one or a bad one.

[Flaris]

Sumire’s situation is an interesting one. She was never going to really recover through Maruki’s method. It was an incomplete solution. Even at her height as Kasumi she never could reach the goal. Her performances would always be a hollow mimicry of Kasumi that didn’t take into consideration Sumire’s physical condition and her own talents. In a sense she’d likely be overwritten again because of the suffering that failure would leave and go even further away from herself. Yet Maruki’s intervention allows her to meet support that would let her accept her weakness, her grief, and stand up again.

I liked the conflict and how the game tackled it. Nothing wrong to say on a certain level the main cast is wrong. Many would be happier if Maruki had his way. But it is true that they wouldn’t have gotten this far if they simply accepted the easy route. They were forged through their pain, found connections through it, and their defiance toppled a god. If they weren’t like that the world wouldn’t exist in the first place for Maruki to try and control anyways.

There are enough questions about it to leave me conflicted but ok with taking Maruki down. Human choice can lead to suffering and maybe having free will hurts people. But taking away the chance to chase your dreams unless it is deemed good for you seems a heavy price. Yusuke’s schoolmate having his passion disregarded or Sumire having her very identity quashed are just a few consequences of escaping pain.

It’s a good conflict. Not everyone can overcome trauma. There’s a high benefit to those that just can’t do it. But for those that matured through their struggles it is only natural to keep on fighting to continue the lives they made for themselves.

[Nomadman]

I say that you probably are the first person to mention Albert Camus in a Persona 5 analysis, which is something I agree with since there's the Absurdism in most of that writing and how that relates to most characters. This was a good video and couldn't be more than agreed on it.

[SuperSparDante]

Just one thing, atlus intended akechi to survive shidos palace even in royal (due to an unused cutscene with him being alive and talking about aiding joker after his recovery) so, akechi's "existence" inside of maruki's reality becomes even more deep, however, we still don't know akechi's true fate (due to it being an unused cutscene, even if the ending implies that he might be alive), just a random fact that makes it all the more interesting.

[nathanielgarza]

Finally I was waiting for someone to tie the themes of Alberto Camus to Persona, I mean them saying revolt a lot was kind of on the noise, I felt kind of alone that no one else spotted it, A+ for that pronunciation of Maruki, I could listen to you say that for hours. As for a few mentioned details is
-the vanilla final palace is design to be figuratively the opposite of the inhuman world(the common name for the world without meaning) as in bloodied, veinfilled and alive. It also seems to take inspiration from Carl Jung’s recorded sick dreams
-each person gain their persona from having their longing for unity/clarity/meaning against the inhuman world(as in to revolt)
-each of the starting Persona’s are figures which failed to revolt physically, as in what ever they were apart of ended poorly for them, as to tie toward a figurative revolt, since what makes someone a absurd hero is not to revolt but to recognize ones revolt is meaningless, and still attempt to find meaning through this struggle. This seems to draw more of portraying the cast as Absurd hero’s as a Persona is just how a person view themselves

[petermacleod]

This is why persona the series really speaks to me. It really is beautiful when u think about it❤️

[courtney]

This made me fall in love with Royal all over again. Excellent video

[christopherroman]

Akechi: I’d rather die than to live in this reality.

Akechi: Would you fold so easily, over such a trivial thing as a threat on my life?

Joker: “This isn’t small potatoes.”


16:39 _time stamp and pause for context_

[IceQueen]

A correction with Akechi: in the True ending, you see him from the torso down outside the train as Akira leaves. So Akechi is actually alive. Also, in the game files, there's an unused scene which confirms Akechi is alive and went to a rehabilitation facility.

[maccamachine]

It’s so much better getting the true ending especially the maruki palace that cemented the game as one of my favorites and it’s great how they connected shidos actions to maruki even though I saw that coming it was a great experience and this is an amazing video man

[miwhitty]

This video is SO intriguing! Very well done!

[ChimeraLotietheBunny]

this series really make such meaningful messages..I already can tell we can't livew without bad events in life

[Sinclair_]

Wow
Alot of research
Amazing commentary
A hopeful messege
What more could a person need