Let's Analyze Characters!- Part 1: Adachi from Persona 4
So the other night my friend thewildcardawakened and myself were talking about our favorite video game series, Persona, but more specifically we were talking about Persona 4. Both of us like the character Adachi Tohru, however sometimes we feel that people try too hard to make him seem...well like there was still some good in him. When in reality...he was just as "evil" and "sinister" as he could be.
When we first meet Adachi, he's just the stereotypical "lousy detective". He avoids work, he seems to slack off, he just doesn't seem like he truly enjoys his job. When we see him, he runs from a dead body and throws up. So we basically write Adachi up under "Comic Relief".
Every time we see him after that he's just being lazy. Hanging around Junes, speaking too much about the case, getting coffee for Dojima, cracking jokes, he's your typical comical relief. So we don't think much about him until Namatame comes into the story.
Because this is where it becomes interesting.
Look at the events that unfold after Namatame shows up. We find out that Namatame is responsible for throwing people into the TV as a means to "save" them, and that he kidnapped Nanako in order to try to keep her safe. But after rescuing Nanako and confronting Namatame, you are given the choice to spare him and continue the case or condemn him to his fate in the TV.
And should you keep calm and continue the case, you begin to suspect Adachi as the murderer. As you bring this point up to the group, you see many things that you didn't see before. Yosuke points out that Adachi always seemed to hang around wherever the group was. It was like he followed them and he always seemed to be telling them exactly what the cops were doing. Yosuke speculates that he was trying to throw them off the trail. Naoto points out that Adachi said something that bothered her when she read the diary of Namatame that contained the names of the victims that went into the TV but DIDN'T die. And she points out that since they didn't die, they weren't televised and there was no way for anyone to know who they were. And it was Naoto who points out that Adachi was in a position where if any evidence could point him out as the murderer, he could easily erase it.
Now we begin to see something very amiss with Adachi and when confronted about it, Adachi begins to lose his cool and flees into the TV world. And its in Ms. Yamano's reality where he admits to his crimes. He calls it a game of cat and mouse that he didn't want to end because it was fun and because he could get away with it.
But there's something even more disturbing underneath this confession. When speaking about Ms. Yamano, he says that "It was an accident....she struggled" . What was Adachi's reaction to Yamano going through the TV? He laughed and was surprised. Prior to talking about the Yamano case, he admitted to hearing about the Midnight Channel and experimented with putting his hand through the TV. He knew it was dangerous too.
However, given his surprise that she went COMPLETELY through the TV, its safe to say that he didn't ORIGINALLY plan this. It is however implied that he tried to instead rape her. Why? Because she had an affair with someone when he saw her first.
Then comes Saki Konishi, who found Yamano's body. Adachi kept bringing her into the station for questioning. However, we find out that he eventually ran out of legitimate questions to bring her in for and instead tried to force himself on her. She however slapped him and in response he pushed her through the TV with the knowledge that she would die. His words to her? "get on your knees and beg and maybe I'll let you out"
But he walks away and laughs at her. He had not intentions of letting her out alive. Adachi knew full well what happened when people were left in the other world. And he was content with it because in his mind they were "bitches" and "they got what they deserved"
By how Adachi acts towards and thinks of women, its a good bet that his is a misogynist. Women are meant to serve men and nothing else, and because they wouldn't put out for him, he got rid of them because they served no purpose.
Which, if you play Persona 4 Golden and do his Social Link, you find out that he had a decent life. Nothing was wrong with it to incite this reaction. He didn't come from an abusive home, he wasn't abandoned. His parents cared about him but he was so wrapped up in his studies that he cut himself off from the world. He deliberately put that road block up to keep people out. And because of it, he looked down on everyone else for being "stupid" or just "worthless".
Its also a safe guess that he was rejected a lot by girls because of his studying habits, or at the very least felt that he could never get them because they were just "bitches". So he harbored resentment, bitterness, and anger that just furthered his descent into madness.
But also its possible that in his mind, he felt that the world rejected him and so he turned his back on it, which also helped break him. By the time we see him, he has since long accepted his years of solitude and was fueled by rage, but it was hidden behind a smile.
And we can also assume that he overheard every conversation that Yu had with his friends. He knew they were following the case, that they were trying to solve it too. So he in turn let them into his "game", however he made sure to not let it slip that it was him until he felt it was time too. They had the same powers as him, so after all, how much fun would it be to fool the Fool and his friends?
And because of this he became warped and twisted. We knew he became a cop just for the gun. But it makes you wonder, how many other girls has he raped? Or tried to rape? How many times has he thought about it? We only know of his life as it is in P4, but what about earlier? Its clear he had a fragile psyche, but his choices in his life warped it more and he slowly declined in sanity.
He played a sick game of chess with the characters in P4. Namatame and the world around him was his pawns. He killed off his queens in the beginning of his game, but took a step back into the shadows and let someone else take the blame even though it was Adachi who orchestrated it all.
Adachi killed two women, after attempting to rape both of them
Adachi planned the kidnappings of Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Nanako
Adachi pulled the strings of everything around him
Adachi undermined his own "game" just so it wouldn't end so quickly
And Adachi felt no remorse for his actions.
During his Social Link, there are times where he hangs out with Yu and Nanako. During those times, did he think of stopping his game? Did he think about turning himself in and did he feel regret?
By his telling of how he committed his crimes...its a safe guess that he didn't. There was no saving Adachi. He wanted to make everyone suffer.
Which brings me to my point of his Arcana during his Social Link. It starts off as The Jester, a variation of The Fool. A jester plays everyone around them as the fool, even becoming the fool themselves. This is shown by Adachi's ease with how he fooled everyone by acting like that lousy detective. Because that's all everything was, it was an act. But because it is the reversed of the Fool Arcana, it represents impulsiveness, poor judgement, obsession, and frivolity.
Impulse: killing Saki and Yamano because they weren't interested in him
Poor Judgement: underestimating Yu and his friends
Obsession: keeping his game of cat and mouse alive by any means necessary
Frivolity: He lacked any seriousness about the case and just brought down the mood deliberately.
"You were a fool for believing in the Adachi that you saw"
Adachi says this to Yu in Persona 4 Golden before his Arcana changes to the Hunger Arcana.
Judging by Adachi's actions, what does it show? He was "hungry" for what he thought was his. That "hunger" or "desire" was shown while he attempted to rape Ms. Yamano, and when he tried the same with Saki. He willingly allowed them die in his game because they wouldn't give him what he wanted. So that "desire" for them quickly became the "desire" to see them hurt, to suffer, and to die.
His "desire" was to kill everyone in the world because they rejected him. But now with his Persona, he was likened to a "God" so he could reject them. He wanted to make everyone hurt and he enjoyed every moment of it.
And what does the Hunger Arcana symbolize? "It symbolizes the danger of losing control, of being consumed by power. The card also implies strength, but strength which comes through Dominance. It is not true power, but the pure bliss of abusing power"
The Adachi ending in P4G is showing Yu confronting Adachi but basically stabbing everyone he cares for in the back to destroy the evidence that could be traced back to Adachi.
And Adachi just laughs it off and smirks while calling Yu's phone, telling him that if his phone rings and its this number, then he has to pick up because otherwise he'll make it known that Dojima's own nephew let a killer roam free.
Yu was then sentenced to a life of servitude to Adachi.
However it is also important to remember that during the Adachi ending, his Arcana doesn't change. It stays as the Jester. This is symbolic in that Yu knows now that you can't trust everyone you meet, that looks are deceiving and he fell for the biggest lie. He believed in the Adachi he saw and in the end, betrayed all those he loved.
And that whole Adachi feeling different about his time spent with Dojimas? That wasn't said out of regret or guilt. It was because he couldn't believe just how easily it was for him to fool them for as long as he did. That his own partner couldn't tell there was something off about him, that his nephew who had the same powers as him completely overlooked him until the end. He didn't have to try to fool them, they were so easily fooled and believed in the good in him that wasn't there to begin with.
And he blatantly tells Yu that he'll continue down his path.
But something that should be remembered is that Adachi DID NOT have a Shadow when you fight him in his reality. That battle was against Adachi who was only partially possessed by Ameno-Sagiri at the time. He wasn't completely possessed until AFTER the fight.
The lack of shadow is significant. Adachi had nothing about him he hated, nothing he was hiding. He embraced everything bad about him and didn't hate it, he knew it was him.
