buddy where the hell do you think you are
The main problem I have with Persona 4 is that it's cowardly. It goes out of its way to present these ideas about young people struggling with ideas about identity, sexuality, gender, etc., with the dawning realization that embracing these ideas may subject them to a life lived in the margins of society. And at first, there's a moment where it seems like that life lived as your true self is preferable, even if it does marginalize you in the end. But it ALWAYS backtracks. Kanji and Naoto are the most relevant for this example, but all the social link characters are like that. They all have justifiable reasons for feeling ostracized from society, resentful if its expectations, but every last one of these characters' stories ends up with them deciding that they were wrong and/or mistaken, that society's expectations are reasonable, if not aspirational, and confirming to them is good actually. That your parents know what's best for you, so you should take up the family business instead of moving away to live your own life and see what lies beyond your small town. That you're not queer or gender non-conforming, you're just confused, or trying to be something you aren't to be accepted taken seriously by your peers(??????). That lashing out to a world actively hostile to who you really are is wrong, because that's *not* who you really are. Your TRUE self wants to be an amenable, agreeable, upstanding member of society.
