February 3: the most cruel thing Maruki did to Joker
February 2 is infamous for obvious reasons, but it's only the day Joker finds out the truth about Akechi. February 3 is the day he actually loses him. I wanna talk about the other tragedy of February 3, specifically how it relates to Maruki. TLDR at the end if you don't wanna read.
Based on the journal notes in Maruki's palace, this is Rumi's birthday. It's also the day Maruki loses her.
Maruki is an unreliable narrator. He's not like the other palace rulers where you can take what they say at face value. Remember that he has no shadow, so he consciously omits the specifics of Rumi's story. It's only by finding the video tapes and these hidden journals that the Phantom Thieves piece it together on their own. It makes sense he wouldn't want to discuss it, since it's a painful memory.
The truth is at least 50% of Maruki's motivation is the pain and guilt of what happened to Rumi. That's an exact statistic btw: there are 6 journals total and the first 3 are entirely about Rumi. Even the last journal ends with a dedication to her. When he and Joker have that boxing match on the bridge, he specifically screams HER name.
There's a misconception in the fandom that Maruki is this selfless savior who only cares about helping others. In reality, his motives are complicated. He does care about others (which is why he was researching this topic long before this. Maruki's empathy is a core part of his character, I'm not denying that), but the reason he goes to such LENGTHS is because of personal traumas. Had the 2/3 tragedy not happened, he never would have taken things that far. Love and trauma make people do crazy things.
To him, February 3 is a day of heartbreak that marks the loss of his true love. This palace's deadline is basically some fucked up birthday gift from a grieving man to his ex-fiancée to alleviate the guilt of not being able to save her. He wants to overrule that by making it the day he saves everyone instead.
But it wasn't enough for him to deal with suffering on his own. Just like on the bridge of the final fight, he had to drag Joker down with him. By setting this as the deadline, Maruki guaranteed that this would be a day of heartbreak for Joker too. From now on, Joker has to live with the guilt of letting Akechi die again on February 3, just like Maruki with Rumi.
And Maruki knew what he was doing there. The dialogue below shows that Maruki speaks from personal experience when it comes to losing someone to unjust circumstances. Even Joker calls it out:
What's even more telling is that after discussing Rumi, Maruki immediately segues the convo to Akechi. He knows how traumatizing that experience was for Joker and he exploits the hell out of it, with leading questions and a knowing tone, nudging him to relive those moments.
That's what these black and white flashbacks cutting in between the dialogue are supposed to be. They're not just a refresher for the player— Joker himself is recalling those moments in real time.
Maruki spends the entire conversation putting the burden on Joker ("YOU were the guiding light to my research. YOU showed me the way"). Putting the life of a loved one in the hands of a teenager is a morbid and heavy thing. That is the most cruel thing Maruki has ever done because he's fully aware of how this hurts Joker. Because love and trauma make people do crazy things, like doom the entire world just to give their loved one another chance at life. Maruki knew this would work on Joker because it worked on him.
That brings us to Akechi and his role in all this. Maruki never got to ask Rumi what she wanted. She was incapacitated so he made the decision for her. That's not the case with Joker and Akechi, who are actually able to discuss it. Akechi directs the burden onto himself instead ("I will carve MY OWN path", "a betrayal of MY wishes"). Look at the difference in phrasing:
"Joker leads the way" vs "Akechi goes his own way." I don't even know if Akechi realizes he's doing it, but he's countering Maruki's manipulation tactics by taking some of the burden off. This way, Joker isn't chosing to let him die. He's just letting Akechi choose his own fate.
Not that this is much of a consolation though. It's still Akechi's life in the balance. Joker STILL has to lose his deepest wish and live with that decision. And it was Maruki who did that to him.
TLDR: Maruki did everything in his power to guarantee that February 3 will not just be his traumatizing anniversary of heartbreak, but Joker's too. He made use of every manipulation tactic in the book to get Joker to fold, even if it meant inflicting the same pain he went through onto an innocent kid.
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