hello, hello, this is my essay analysis on: Goro Akechi, what his personas directly reflect on his worldview, and what Persona 5 has to say about justice v. revenge as well as personal complicity in systems of oppression, through Akechi.
Robin Hood and Loki are both two sides of the same coin; they are a direct parallel to the concepts of justice and revenge, which have also been philosophically regarded as two sides of the same coin. Even further with this, they also parallel being a pawn of systems of power versus directly upholding them.
This is only relevant in context to my analysis, so I'm not going to do a totally comprehensive brief on this, because there's a lot to be said on the subject. The "social contract," in political philosophy specifically, basically refers to the unspoken agreement between an individual and the state. People live in a governed society, and in exchange to keep living in a society that provides a justice system, a financial system, a medical system and so on, people give up freedom. To play by fair, rigid rules, in a game that you don't always get to have a say in, for the mutual benefit and justice of everyone. It's been argued that even though no physical contract with the system is signed, a person consents just by being born into the society and continuing to enjoy the fruits of it. "If you don't like it, just leave."
But that's pretty flawed, isn't it? To argue that every person who lives in a society has consented to suffer from it just by being there, when choosing another option could mean sickness, starvation, or death? The malicious component at play here is that the system is built to keep people under the authority of state by making the alternative even more insufferable and unreachable, and then guide them into believing it was their choice. Forced to play the game. The power of the system is literally built to be upheld by the suffering and distorted thinking of the people under it.
On one side, Robin Hood. There is Akechi's intrinsic desire to act fairly in the midst of an unfair world. To side-step the rigid rules of society, because they aren't always so fair, and act truly for the mutual benefit and justice of everyone, even if it means taking things out of the system's hand to do so.
But, revenge is systemic, too. Because justice is almost always used synonymously with punishment, and punishment is not a natural consequence; it has to be enacted. It is a thin veil for revenge. Someone is still acting under the belief that they have the authority to decide who is right and who gets what. The real difference is that justice is formal--- enacted by a law and/or societally agreed upon, and revenge breaks that social contract. They are both flawed, and not as morally separate as the state would have you believe. Someone is being given the authority over moral ruling. Someone is still being given the jurisdiction to decide punishment for someone else. It's not a natural consequence.
On the other side, Loki. The pain of his lifelong oppression at the hands of the system. There is confusion in your own self that comes from living by the same social contract that torments you so that you cannot turn a blind eye to it as someone else might be able to. There is shards of disjointed agony that coalesce into rage. The deep-rooted desire for catharsis and change--- justice.
But one thing we know about Akechi is that, above all, he doesn't do bullshit. His childhood was years of being failed by the systems around him and seeing other people failed by them too. His desire for justice was distorted into revenge. It was all the same in every direction at the foundation, and there was nothing for him but pain and cynicism, so why not throw everything into chaos? He was pragmatic, but rather cynical. Chaos, that's what he believed human nature was. When he said that what he's doing is just the same as the Phantom Thieves ultimately, he really did believe that. That came from a place of being disillusioned with the subjectivity and ultimate failing of justice. But by buying into this, Akechi crosses a line.
There is a lot to be said about personal complicity in systems of oppression. To live by the social contract is to be complicit on some level, and on some level, to benefit from it is to suffer by it. It's highly subjective. But somewhere along the line, Akechi crosses the line from being victimized by the system to knowingly upholding it for his own benefit--- being a perpetrator of it. In his desperation for revenge on Shido, he does his bidding, giving him power, authority. In his desperation to be desired by others, to get revenge on a world that had previously turned its back on him, he takes advantage of other people. Seizing status, and taking advantage of tragedies and public opinion. Even causing them.
So awakening unnaturally to two personas at the same time, especially those two, is incredibly representative of Akechi's inner turmoil, his pain, and philosophical outlook. He teetered on that line between justice and revenge for years before he chose to kill for Shido. He accepted that doing so would make him a perpetrator by his own standards, and offered his abilities up to Shido on a silver platter. While the Phantom Thieves unraveled distorted thinking, he convinced himself that he had the authority to arbitrarily both decide and distort justice and truth, if it meant he achieved his subjective perception of justice.
And the deep internal pain and chaos in Akechi led to solidifying this worldview so strongly. He did not falter in the interrogation room--- he never showed hesitance or guilt. For so long, he enacted on the side of the system to get revenge on it and didn't bat an eye at the blast radius of suffering. Not until it was over, in the engine room, did he finally look back.
Akechi, at his core-est core, has a worldview so in line with the broader themes of the game, and furthermore, the protagonist. He's anti-establishment, anti-authority, and anti-control, so why? Why did he end up on this path, how did he work as a narrative foil so well? Well, he gave up his freedom. In the game, the protagonist, when faced with impossible options like giving into authority and control or watching his friends die, or giving into authority and control or watching Akechi die, chooses neither. He breaks the game, refuses to play. He snipes Yaldabaoth, takes back the world and his friends. He goes against Maruki, holding out hope that Akechi will survive, and if he doesn't, that it will not control his life, that he can overcome suffering. Where Akechi upholds the game, the protagonist refuses to play.
This is also why, to me personally, it’s incredibly important that people recognize Hereward. I see people opting to keep both Loki and Robin Hood around post-canon, or just throwing Hereward in there with them. But in the third tier persona awakening animation on 2/2, they visibly fuse. This is so, so significant. The reconciliation of Akechi’s convictions, and his inner turmoil, even though (or perhaps especially because) it’s so bittersweet. I do feel a little bit like people value Akechi having multiple personas more than they value what them fusing into Hereward signifies for his character, but it’s a minor peeve; everyone is entitled to their own interpretations, and this is just mine.
