#despairingly sinful

[jacksmusesdrv3]

...Someone mentioned before that there’s Christian symbology in DR overall and connected to DR1′s mastermind Junko, which is. uhhhhh curious that it’s such a heavy deal in DRV3 along with all this European shit this time around

I mean for real, not only is the opening of the Shrine of Judgement ridiculously impressive, but the courtroom’s detailing, and the floor with the Monokuma statues is like being in a church, the deadly sins scrawled about the place (we see Luxuria and Avaritia, dunno if any others are knocking about).....

...and stuff like this in the meta, and music making reference to heaven and hell.

And what’s this ‘thin line’ stuff all over again? ‘Victim and attacker’, ‘heaven and hell’, ‘criminal and detective’... ‘truth/reality and lie/fiction’? Oi.

[jacksmusesdrv3]

A curious pattern with the survivors is that they all show unhealthy romanticism in some form, whether perpetuating or receiving.

Shuichi romanticised Kaede to the point of negating her action, and also, the reasons why those actions happened to begin with. Pride.

Maki romanticised Kaito to the point her actions were geared around him, and her rage towards Ouma was pointedly justified ‘for his sake’. Wrath.

Tenko romanticised Himiko to the point of suffocating her - making her a poster child for the ‘pure, ideal girl’ - which may have contributed to her... well. Vanity.

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Shuichi has some curiously relevant, aligning aspects:

Insecurity, arrogance and shying from the truth, aligning with Pride

Perv-ish behaviour and even a background in sensitive cases, aligning with the Love Hotel, aka Lust

A background in hunting people down, aligning with a certain Hunt

History in [psychology research], aligning with experiments in his lab

How... strange...

[jacksmusesdrv3]

The duality of pride, as both a great virtue and a deadly sin...

Shuichi’s ‘sinner played off as hero’ role makes a lot more sense with this

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Wrath: Maki, for submitting to murderous rage to bring harm Envy: Kaito, for unwise coaching in a fog of resentment Sloth: Himiko, for refusing to express in laziness and cowardice Vanity: Himiko, for pompous self-love and unfettered immaturity Lust: the Love Hotel, for warping another’s reality for gratification Gluttony: Korekiyo(’s sister), for the need and demand of many souls Greed: the Casino, for the encouragement of inflated desire

Pride: Shuichi, for insincere conviction and lack of care for the truth

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Another curious and worrying thing is that Pride is very much responsible for Despair’s fate, and by extension, for everything going to hell in a handbasket

In Persona 5, Pride created Despair by abandoning his bastard son and lover, allowing the former to grow into an embittered and desperate young soul, and become putty in the hands of a conspiracy that ruined the country

In DRV3, Pride created Despair by handing a runaway back to the pursuer, effectively sending him down the slippery slope of insanity, then joining the conspiracy and triggering a course of events that would mean ruin for the world

Speaking of that, Despair also wanted revenge for Pride’s actions, and his entire arc was leading towards him going for it...!

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Pretty confident now that Himiko’s post-development is Vanity. The surface part is where she needs praise for small things and blushes after complimenting herself - things that are evident even before she learns to express herself more - but the matter is that her general immaturity is something she doesn’t grow out of on the whole, and it affects how she deals with people. 

So essentially, her development is like trading one sin for another, and that follows since she gets worse after her development catalyst for the sake of her expression- more childish, mean, cruel even. What’s more is how she [accepts Monokuma as being cute], like she had no principle in the matter of who or what her friends were, just as long as they liked her or were on her side. 

Another curious thing: ‘Vanity well fed is benevolent, vanity hungry is spiteful’. Much like the ‘benevolent queen versus wicked witch’!

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Okay. So for the relevant sins, we have:

Greed: Casino

Lust: Love Hotel

Gluttony: [Korekiyo’s sister]

Sloth --> Vanity: Himiko

Wrath: Maki

Envy: Kaito

Pride: Shuichi

Notable is that pride and envy are typically related with one another, which makes it interesting that Shuichi’s relationship with Kaito is so highly stated. Though what’s curious too is that Persona 5 also had an unstated (that is, outdated) one - for a certain extremely unfortunate individual - which was basically despair. 

Could Monokuma this time, represent the true sin of despair, rather than the concept? That is to say, this Monokuma was completely broken, rather than a ‘lover of despair’ in the same way that Junko was.