ren "dont be ridiculous" "dont oversimplify things" amamiya when you got a guy you can't love, can't hate, can't kill him off without regrets and can't bring him back from the dead to have time to figure it out either. get you a love so strong bcs it ain't love, it ain't hate, it sure ain't a delusional friendship he'd slap you for either (you'd slap back) bcs thats not who the two of you are at all (he'd deny wanting it tho, the faker, as tho this is all one sided - it is not). he'd tell you all about having no regrets, that sth like this is "ridiculous", that he hates wish fulfillment like this as tho he hadnt come up with the same thing and has so much regrets and hesitation he couldnt afford to feel any of it while barreling towards his own death that he thinks he deserves (guess who too was dissociating from a plan that came this close to killing them off ?). that despite everything, neither of you could say you feel nothing for each other, that you don't care, that you would rather just stay away. bcs in a world where you have no choice but to be enemies and you could only have empty pleasantries for an empty bond created by a puppeteer, you might as well have been a doll without a name.
okay funny thought but what if the reason they didnt change the other SLs much in p5r was bcs the hero & "therapist friend" theme fits too well with third semester and maruki being a parallel of ren being the world's literal therapist ? like yeah theres plot constraints and they would have to change all of them for an overall improvement but what if that was the nail in the coffin 😂 play up the savior theme and let ren question that very valid desire of his that started his whole journey (once again, insane how bcs of this, akechi's SL get the platinum treatment of being the only one where ren didn't save, couldn't save and decided to not save in the end. akechi who told ren to respect his wish and in turn respect his own feelings, who helped ren overcome his regrets and have hope for the future, who gave ren courage and "saved" him) (ah this makes me 🥹 akechi who told ren without saying that he was already saved, that he could be here telling ren this bcs ren had saved him and given him the same courage back in engine room. so dont lose hope, you told me to fight so i am, dont you dare betray the promise you told me to keep. and when ren kept his words, akechi gained that much more power to keep going, to defy fate at the end of it 🥹🥹).
i am this close to spawning another rant inside the tags 😂 just dropping this here no thinking allowed: ren's story is about hesitation, of choosing what to do and always a dialogue choice when he wants to say something. his whole battle from the start has been to break free from his own hesitation, change from the person he was before, blend in but also rise up, overthink but also act decisively, finding the person he wants to become and sticking to it (this makes third semester so much better thematically). and he is so similar and also complement akechi so much they really are a fated pair okay im done.
i forgot, ofc akechi is special to ren he is god's fated rival set up specifically for ren ofc his link is made alr too complicated with that connection. its not just a person you get to know then is betrayed by, its your divine-mandated rival of opposing-axes upon which the fate of the whole world hindes. to make him "just some guy" when ren's whole "foretold ruination" is by his hands is like discrediting yaldy as a god (he is trying so hard give him some slack) and lowering the stakes of interrogation room and everything after. no, everything with akechi is too closely linked with the main (ren's) story for it to not be perfectly built up to induce a sense of inevitability and ruination, fighting against chains only to realize you've never left the prison. thats why akechi's social link has to encapsulate the "fated enemy" of the plot, but not be about it bcs thats spoiler main plot, meaning it has to be "friendly" but thats impossible bcs of their roles. in trying to navigate these restraints you create a naturally occurring situation of ren trying to form a bond that goes against common sense, a rebellion, which feels like a personal investment coming from both ren and akechi: they have zero chance of having an honest relationship, but they make something out of it anyway despite the violent ways they will and have to clash. this results in a bond that seems to reach beneath the mask for both of them, as they try to go for every other way beside being honest to get closer to each other. this struggle makes them more connected than a typical friendship, bcs they learn to know each other past the masks - its a bit of a twisted game since they are never entirely honest with each other. and yet they continue to be with each other, and learn about each other one game after another, and it goes both ways this interest. the game gives ren the choice of not meeting akechi bcs not like his contact was needed, and it gives akechi the choice of doing literally anything else in the SL that is relevant to his plans, but no. ren was meeting akechi for personal interest and akechi was making those meetups personal bcs he wanted to ! their bond can't be about being enemies or friends, no external situation allowed - they cant be opposing sides in a situation cos they already are, they cant be on the same sides either bcs they already are, so they could only deal with each other directly - so it can't be about anything but themselves, their "truer selves" !
(what if akechi was set up to be ren's true friend from the start ? that's not p5 anymore bcs yaldy wanted them to go head to head i guess and its more tragic thinking they could have been solid friends without all this. and that's why we got third semester, the tragedy that they could never end up friends in their world. but the answer to that is what they end up making is better, bcs it is truly theirs)
Movie about a depressed and rather morbid autistic man planning to commit suicide and picking up a number of odd jobs in an effort to raise enough money to meticulously plan and prepay for his funeral so his mother doesn’t have to worry about it after he is gone. He begins to connect with people and enjoy life for the first time while working part time as a greeter in the funeral home, helping an eccentric old lady organize her basement, walking 7 dogs and maintaining a feral cat colony for a guy with a broken foot, playing a number of bit parts in local ads and stocking the shelves at the convenience store at night. In the end, he has befriended many of his neighbors and he decides he does not want to die and goes back to school to become a funeral director instead.
He is popular at his funeral home gig because he keeps accidentally saying things that are very reassuring and death positive. Because he wants to die. He eventually donates his funeral fund to the old lady’s granddaughter after her sudden death so she does not have to sell her grandmother’s prized possessions to pay for her funeral.
The old lady gifts him one of her ceramic cats at the beginning of the film which he reluctantly accepts out of politeness. Near the end of the film, he adopts a friendly cat from the cat colony that looks remarkably like the ceramic cat and names it after her, signaling his commitment to surviving and caring for his cat the way the old woman lived for her ceramic collection.
i like to imagine that post canon akechi gets mad at haru for taking over her dad's company and becoming a part of the bourgeois capitalist class and starts quoting marx at her. and she's like (genuinely intrigued) "i was unaware you were a communist!" and he starts to say "i'm not-" but cuts off because he realizes he's actually started to have hope for the world and maybe he isn't a nihilist anymore? what the fuck? does he actually believe in this shit? and then he wanders off having an existential crisis about how befriending akira has turned him into a dirty leftist who actually believes in creating a future that's better than the present
just thinking, the wiki says akechi's SL was meant to be optional all along but made mandatory in the og bcs of plot and time constraints. just a thought tho, why couldnt they just introduce a case or even that scrapped mementos quest, like what mementos mission manga did ? they could've followed the same format as every other SL then flip it with the betrayal. i mean i know akechi is special but this is defs another level of special 😂 what was akechi's original SL supposed to be like ? if what we got in p5r then i must say they really wanted to go for the "im just personally interested in you as rival-enemy" angle even without third semester. if third semester was involved after all, and i think it must be, then it was a deliberate decision to make akechi's SL as "unmoored" as it was. as in, every SL has some kind of issue tackled by the confidant, some kind of mini case that got resolved at the end. you could argue shido is this for akechi, but shido is also ren's issue, its not even technically part of the SL. the boss we fight in the SL is akechi, already another standout. is it meant to be different bcs akechi is designated by plot an enemy ? then they could have made it like sumire, someone we only truly get to know in third sem - but no. narratively there was a focus to make it so that we must know the true akechi before third semester, even with all the plot constraints. another point to the "akechi is key to third semester" theory. but if so, were they really that short of time for the og that they couldnt shoehorn in an akechi SL like everyone else's, or did the devs have their third eye opened and realize akechi deserves a Very Special social link, so special it must revolve around him and ren specifically leading to an arc as dramatic as third semester was ?
(they were enemies, so their bond can't just be any run-of-the-mill situation. they were rivals, so their bond must have them exposed each other down to the bone, even as the stage of their showdown must go on)
just a quick dot-connecting before i start straining out of thin air: Road Less Taken is loosely the result of ren and akechi meeting, the way their approach to life and mindset changed after the events of og persona 5. so basically:
Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There (WUGU)
+
Dark Sun... (DS)
=
Road Less Taken (RLT)
+
No More What Ifs (NMWI)
WUGU i wont go into details is basically arsene: rise up, break free, be angry, fight for change even if it means breaking (hold on) with a dash of Who am i at the start thats reminiscent of Beneath the mask, like this is the identity ren has realized for himself when he decided to save ryuji and affirmed himself his decision to save that woman earlier. other fight songs associated with him like Life Will Change and Rivers In The Desserts are iterations of this, almost like echoing of these sentiments with the thieves (there is a shift from mostly anger, fighting for one's life on the edge of breaking, to still fighting on the edge but there is more hope, more empowering sentiments, a fight for a miracle).
as analyzed earlier, DS is akechi's story of a mistake made in one's darkest hour, becoming the evil that ruined his life, then despair with no way out and continuing to "live another day" (the nice contrast of anger, demanding change in ren's WUGU to akechi's regret and almost helplessness to continue things in DS). also mentioned earlier is NMWI being their secret, the bond they shared in a place akechi has showed no one else. i think NMWI is like the intersection of their paths: they both aren't that confident about what they did as they seem, but ultimately choose to not regret it. like akechi's rank 7, where he so subtly hinted to ren that there will be casualties if they keep going, even then will you continue?, then ren took on his game - they mutually agreed that no matter what, they will continue forward despite their fear and doubts. "i know i won't change anything bcs i can only be me" is very fitting answer to ren's rather subtle doubts about himself (a bit in WUGU but mostly in Beneath The Mask, but that song is so very character centric and not quite following the story of rebellion of p5) (but when u think about it, BTM can just as well be ren's part and RLT can still be a follow up to that after his meeting akechi. BTM is about this rather empty person hiding under their mask while DS is someone who clearly knows who they are even if unconsciously dissociating, then RLT comes in to say that they will break free and make their own story apart from the "story" thats been forced upon them, and NMWI affirming that this is who they are, what they want to do). "just wanna live my life the way i want" is such an interesting sentiment both of them came to, when you think about how despite the message of Take your time, there's this element of ren's life where you are perpetually running out of time, just like akechi with his godforsaken schedule. ren from burning in anger and pushing himself to "wake up, get up" to telling himself to calm down and not get carried away by the hype (which was used by shido to trap them with okumura) (gameplay wise, its ren grinding stats then spending time chilling with the confidants after) (story wise, realizing that as thieves they should not have been led by the public to begin with). akechi and his entire life of being a puppet to society, then leaving those chains when he sacrificed himself to save the thieves, his first act of rebellion.
that's NMWI brand of subtlety (akechi style), but RLT is much more fun bcs its more explicitly ren's follow up to DS (DS, WUGU and RLT written by the same lyricist btw).
Your movie, your storyline
All decided before the curtain rises
How does it feel to be inclined
Towards fate so certain
How can you change a thing if your life
Has been written into stone?
Your life's been written into plot lines by another
Can you make it your own?
these lines of decided fate make so much sense if you think about the despair of akechi as "dark sun", and also both of them as pawns in yaldy's game. once again, the sentiment they came to after meeting each other and knowing the truth is, so very in character for both of them, challenging each other to go on (rank 7 + 8 akechi challenging ren, and the lines here) (i wonder why ren said so little after the fight in engine room, mbe he knew akechi had to break out of his chains by himself, mbe he didnt have to, just beating akechi and not killing him was itself a challenge to akechi, mbe akechi gave too many complicated feelings esp after the shido reveal) (i feel like akechis SL is like the game giving ren a chance to say things he couldnt say to akechi originally. like without it in the og, there was barely any time and he could only agree to akechi's pleas, and what challenge could there be when he was alr at death's door ? hence he and the thieves still regret akechi, but with akechis SL he was able to throw that last challenge about the glove at akechi - which later helped him live - but having that ironically made ren regret it even more, bcs a deeper bond means that much more was lost).
What you gonna do, what you gonna do
Your life plot written by someone but you
What you gonna do, what you gonna do
Will you stand up and fight through
when it's canon that ren goads akechi into their competitions (refer recent takoyaki challenge). this has the rise-up vibe of WUGU but in response to the despair of DS, and instead of anger has a more joker, can-you-do-it vibe (very subtly what akechi hinted to ren in rank 7 as well, about the balls).
You are looking without seeing
It's not like you were blind
But something had you fleeing
From what you could find
Just hiding in plain sight:
You're already always free
Now you're looking and you're seeing
Your every choice is fine
No plot limits your freedom
And the story line
Is yours for the making
The road less taken
Could be where you're meant to be
(road less taken and its the unconventional move of teaming up with the enemy who killed you, or enjoy a very respectable, death-defying rivalry with said murderer) the references to being "blind" is such a connection to DS, validating that akechi wasn't really foolish or lost the ability to choose but was just running away (interestingly ren said p5x that this same running away was what helped him). that akechi wasn't completely trapped like it had seemed, that freedom was what he wanted and he could still reach it (that he had been too afraid to see those choices, that he had them and still has them, that it isn't anyone saving him but he himself has always been free) (id like to think that the message is him owning his choice back then and he still has a choice now, he is free to make his own choice now, not trapped by the past). so much reference to "seeing". "your every choice is fine" both answers akechi's past lack of choice in what he (thought he) must do and ren's possible regrets over choosing better, that every choice of his now is fine no matter what he could have done before (empowering but sad ironic that akechi's only freedom is still death under the plot. "storyline yours for the making" and he chose to end it to let ren's go on) (but that is his rebellion, his own "road less taken", a path he was never able to choose before, a life controlled by others he will now make his own).
(you know what this song sounds like ? a game. the beats sound so much like a performance, a game, a fun showdown between rivals !)
Come join me
I know a path, out of this maze
So we can be who we are, our truer selves
Sure we'll stumble, and we might fall too
But we'll get up and wipe the dust off
It might turn to stardust yet
This new encounter will set us off
On a new path, where new lines intersect
"come join me" literally them asking akechi to join the thieves. i realize most of this song also apply to the PT, but the references to "moving without vision" and "predefined mission" are much more relevant to similarities shared btw akechi and ren (and DS) (and a "fate so certain") (and this "your every choice is fine" and "your storyline is yours" has a vibe practically the same as NMWI and akechi's theme of freedom).
(i like this idea of ren taking akechi's hand "lets get out of here" and when they leave the maze their masks fade away, and together they set out on their fools' journey, a new path, a bond thats unrecognizable from what the world forced on them)
What you gonna do, what you gonna do
Would you be brave enough to stand up, break the rules
What you gonna do, what you gonna do
Would you join me and fight through
more challenging him to break free of his chains (why does the "what you gonna do" sound so much like ren gloating after fluffing akechis hair and putting glasses on him in rank 2) (and that last line is asking akechi in engine room to fight with them, even tho the "rules" say they shouldnt).
You were moving without vision
Some hidden puppeteer
Had predefined your mission
Cut the strings he moved
And suddenly you proved:
You're already always free
reference to yaldy, to a lesser extent shido as akechi realized how much of a puppet he really was at the end. big allusion to akechi breaking free of what he was supposed to do (what the puppet told him to do) and proving that he was now free, he owns that choice, his freedom and himself.
Now your eyesight's gained precision
Your every choice is fine
And no more indecision
Cause your story line, it's yours for the making
The road less taken could be where you're meant to be
all these references to eyesight... and it reminds me that akechi mains in sharpshooting (ren also has a whole SL about gun skills, and all the final boss shots have him shooting) and his first act of rebellion has him shooting precisely the button of the bulkhead door.
the next 3 lines are basically NMWI. funny enough, akechi's half finished sentence there can be answered by this exact line about road less taken. "what matters most is how you bring joy to life, so... the road less taken could be where you're meant to be". this song is like NMWI if akechi stops saying half sentences all the time 😂🥹 ren's part in the dance they share (funny pt.2 is akechi being the talkative one in the SL but when it comes down to it ren is the one spilling all the truths) (its akechi with the courage from ren, and ren realizing the truth after akechi, rising up to the challenge and owning his choices and actions, his darkest hour after the PT died and yaldy gave him the deal a parallel to DS's first question about the choice defining his identity, his worth, and ren made a choice that solidified who he was, his justice) (like the symbol of hopeless despair meeting hope and the symbol of hope amidst despair meeting true despair, and they both rose up to make their own path) (id like to think that just like akechi learning what true freedom is after ren and engine room, ren also realized what true justice is, to get past his anger at the world bcs look where that got akechi, and choose to save them instead. they both made a choice that defined who they are at that moment, holding the same wish for a rebellion without destroying the world in its wake) (akechi no longer trapped by the past, ren no longer unsure of what he wants).
We about to take the ride and multiply
The path and friends we gonna multiply
What was given was a bit too shady in my mind
And the roadless path will be constructed by us
I can't guarantee anything but I know that it won't be tedious, yup, more serious
I say take a breather and chill and enjoy the ride
the optimistic "multiply" lines make me sad bcs its so hopeful and "countless possibilities" vibe but akechi's just dead after taking the plunge... no wonder they all regret him (i know it also refers to all the ppl we meet in q2 but... in this context...). the shady line is such a reference to the igor-yaldy situation. "roadless path constructed by us" and its them making a rivalry out of their bond, whole of akechi's SL a journey of discovery and making sth out of what they were given. and the message about taking your time and its Literally ren taking akechi out on dates and having silly competitions, just enjoying each other's company (take a breather and its both akechi and ren spending relaxing time with each other, from jazz jin to the bath) (then akechi cranked it up and reminded ren of whats at stake and ren said Okay so he went back to their completely seriously unserious rivalry with the glove thing, like sure we're about to kill each other but don't forget, we'll settle this after that).
We got up and wiped the dust off
Our courage set us free, yeah
And now our lines have met in time
Our lives intertwined
"the dust" refers to the possibility of failing earlier, and here it adds to the message to not be afraid of failure, of fear, bcs courage is what will give them freedom (another thing is its always "we" wipe the dust off, a subtle point that the singer is encouraging the listener to join them so they can all fight this together). "our lines met in time, our lives intertwined" being the bridge before the next part is so good 🥹 so sad bcs they met "in time" but not "in time", their lives intersected and their wish now one but...
We were moving without vision
Some hidden puppeteer
Had predefined our mission
Cut the strings he moved
And suddenly we proved:
We're already always free
Now our eyesight's gained precision
Our every choice is fine
And no more indecision
Course our story line, it's ours for the making
The road less taken could be where we're meant to be
the same verses but now the two of them together, the same wish. the two pawns under the puppeteer, playing an unknown game they finally know now. then akechi broke free from his strings and ren rejected the deal, and they proved to the world and themselves that they are who they are, and they are free. both of their eyesights gained precision, akechi his strings and ren the game they had played against their will. they can choose whatever now, no more indecision (no more what ifs). their story are only theirs to make, however it might end, even if its unfamiliar and scary it might (is) exactly where they want to do.
this song complements NMWI to a scary degree and is a very in-character, plot-relevant response to DS (on an even more headcanon note, imagine this as default ren turning everything into a game so he doesnt have to face all the horrors that had happened to him, spinning such a hopeful outlook when he has such complicated feelings about his rival the one who killed him and others, who took their side in the end and died without being able to see the future they might make together. all this for a song in a spinoff where they forgot everything at the end before interrogation room then engine room... its like the what if that could happen but never would) (they could've had a better ending if they had more time, if they had met earlier, but like memories of a forgotten adventure its only what ifs, ideal vs the real. its this exact gap between the hope in the song vs what happened in og that brought about third sem, and NMWI ended up answering that very question: don't regret your choices, we can only be who we are) (they keeping being the missing piece of each other 🥹😭🥹 thesis and antithesis).
an old comic for an old au i will never write that i call my Akechi & Sophia Murder Buddies AU. basically, what if akechi infiltrated ichinose’s palace and found sophia inside. sophia is very similar to akechi in a lot of ways, and it got me thinking how her arc would look different if she met someone like akechi instead of the phantom thieves. also, their dynamic would be comedy gold. more details under the cut
bonus:
so, the catalyst for the au is shido learning about ichinose's research into cogpsi in late september (idk if this timeline matches up, it probably doesn't, but let's just say i'm moving what ichinose does up to earlier in the timeline for the sake of the au). he has goro infiltrate her palace to get information on this and determine if she's a threat. goro finds absolutely nothing in her palace, which is a near-empty dollhouse with only lifeless dolls and furniture inside. shadow ichinose herself is nowhere to be found. he's just about to call it a wash when he stumbles upon the cognition of sophia and accidentally awakens her.
sophia insists on being goro's companion, much to his chagrin, and follows him around the palace as he tries to leave. however, on the way out they run into ichinose's cognition of EMMA, which tries to eliminate both of them. sophia "awakens" to her "persona" and saves akechi's life. tired from the fight, akechi bails on ichinose's palace without bothering to find ichinose's shadow. when akechi leaves the palace, he mysteriously still finds sophia on his phone in the real world--and he decides, well if i'm stuck with her, she might as well help me out in the metaverse. (he is Not happy about any of this.)
akechi tells shido ichinose is a nobody. he doesn't know if this is true but neither does he care. akechi and sophia enter a deal--she will help him eliminate evil targets, being his helpful companion, if he helps her find her creator after his plan of revenge is over. akechi has no intentions of keeping his side of the deal (at first).
sophia becomes increasingly heartless and cruel under akechi's influence, to a point where it even starts to shock him. essentially, its the opposite of her arc in strikers--instead of her gaining a heart by making friends and learning what love, kindness, and justice are, she becomes more heartless and robotic without their guidance. meanwhile, akechi starts to actually care about sophia, and feels a deep seeded guilt about what he's done to her--while being very much in denial about all of this. in essence, they have opposite effects on one another.
but things get interesting when goro still ends up joining the phantom thieves, but this time with sophia in tow......
(maybe i'll draw a comic about that someday and share more of the au then hehe)
