Persona 5 - Maruki Was Right. Here's Why.

Comments · 768

• FL

  @Flambingo · 4 years ago (edited)

  R.I.P Billy Kametz, the english voice of Maruki. Cancer fucking blows, man.

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• HE

  @hermitarcana3812 · 3 years ago

  Maruki&apos;s treatment of Sumire could be read as him valuing her <i>professed wishes</i> over what would actually be the best solution. He repeatedly says things like &quot;I&apos;m granting everyone&apos;s wishes&quot; and &quot;this world can be whatever people desire it to be&quot;, not &quot;I&apos;m going to remake everyone&apos;s lives in my ideal image.&quot; Reviving Sumire and buffing Kasumi would&apos;ve been the best route, but Sumire&apos;s <i>wish</i> was to become Kasumi, so he did that. Since it appeared to be making her happy, he saw no need to change anything. In his eyes, he was merely granting what she asked for. What she desired most strongly came before any considerations of &quot;Is this the most logical way?&quot; or &quot;Is it ethical to erase someone&apos;s whole identity and replace it?&quot;<br><br>The personality rewrite was initially a result of him not having the power to change reality. At that point in the story, he could only alter people&apos;s minds, not bring back the dead. So when Sumire says that she so desperately wants to become her sister, he essentially enables her, for the same reason many enablers enable unhealthy wishes: a misplaced sense of compassion.<br><br>One he gains the power to change physical reality, better options become available. But since Sumire is already content living as Kasumi, he figures there&apos;s no need to change anything. It almost becomes an extension of the conspicuous absence of Rumi in his new world: with his new power, he could truly go back and right that wrong, revive Rumi&apos;s family, give her back her memories, return to her as her fiance. But he doesn&apos;t. Presumably, he lets her live on an amnesiac, same as Kasumi, because, well, he already helped her find happiness, why fix what ain&apos;t broke? Of course, the real reason is probably that he doesn&apos;t want to face that part of his past in any way shape or form. He&apos;s ascended to a higher plane of existence just to distance himself from it, he ain&apos;t going back now. So maybe this is a stretch, but perhaps that&apos;s why he needs to keep Kasumi the way she is, too: if there&apos;s a better way for Kasumi, there&apos;s a better way for Rumi, and then he has to face that ghost.<br><br>So, I guess it all shows how his singleminded tunnel vision savior complex of indulging people&apos;s self-professed deepest yearnings blinds him to other considerations, like &quot;Would this actually be good for them?&quot; But then there&apos;s the Actualization Ending. By that point in the story, Sumire has rejected the Kasumi identity. She no longer wishes to become someone else. But Maruki ignores that and turns her back into Kasumi anyway. With this, he&apos;s no longer granting her wishes, but overriding her will completely, <i>and</i> ignoring the other options that are now available to him as a god with power over life and death. There&apos;s not even a discussion, like, &quot;I can see that you feel differently now, Sumire. In which case, how about I propose this?&quot;<br><br>On the one hand, I can see it as a continuation of that tunnel vision from before, which goes to show that his way of thinking truly is distorted and makes you fear for the untold number of other Sumires in his world that have had valuable parts of their lives or souls overridden because they desired it thus. On the other hand, it&apos;s a missed opportunity. I mean, imagine if Maruki was like, &quot;Oh, you know what, you&apos;re right. Hey Sumire, want your sister back?&quot; This simultaneously steelmans Maruki, while also posing a dilemma for Sumire. Sure, she&apos;s overcome wanting to be someone else, but can she truly pass up an opportunity to bring back her sister for real? I was waiting for a moment like that to happen through the whole story, and then it didn&apos;t, and that was disappointing. Maybe it would&apos;ve written them into a corner.

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• BE

  @bellar7446 · 4 years ago

  The reason Maruki didn’t create a cognitive being of Kasumi, or bring her back to life was because it was Sumire’s original wish was to live as Kasumi. Thus in the ideal reality, Sumire is Kasumi rather than having both of them. Sumire was not happy living as herself.

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• GR

  @griffinbr124 · 8 months ago

  As a fellow Megaten Lawchad: Maruki was right

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• CA

  @catchingcl0uds7 · 4 years ago (edited)

  I have to be honest, while I was playing I knew I wasn&apos;t supposed to accept Maruki&apos;s reality if I wanted to get the &quot;True Ending&quot; of P5R. But while I was infiltrating his Palace, the constant feeling of &quot;I wouldn&apos;t ever decline this&quot; had kept in me more and more the further I went with the infiltration.

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• GR

  @griffinbr124 · 7 months ago

  Maruki Haters when they see a child with stage 4 cancer (they have to fight their own problems so it&apos;s all good): 🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉

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• LE

  @lewis9s · 2 years ago

  This is why I love Persona 5 Royal’s final semester. There really isn’t one right answer.<br>I always go back and forth between the two on which is actually best.<br><br>In the perfect world it does seem so blissful but what does it mean to live in this “perfect” world? <br>Aren’t you just denying life? <br>Are you even alive anymore or just simply experiencing existence with a false sense of happiness plastered on your face at all times?<br>A constant voice telling you how and what to feel instead of choosing that for yourself?<br>And how long can Maruki hold it all together?<br>Surely in the “perfect” world even Maruki should be happy and yet it seems more like he is just suffering in place of all of humanity just trying to keep the facade in check.<br>Yes a lot of people would benefit, hell I’d DEFINITELY benefit from it. <br>But the answer and ultimately the message of the game was that there is something to be gained through hardship. After all, Joker would never have met the other phantom thieves if there never were any “rotten adults” mistreating them in the first place. <br>Whatever conclusion you come to, it’s either the good ending or the true ending. True doesn’t mean best, but it does mean real.

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• NO

  @NoahHalfSquid · 4 months ago

  The worst part is that all these issues? Maruki literally offered to talk about them and try and fix them, but the PTs refused

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• CR

  @CrystalKingdomGeneral4942 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7wl484bI_o&amp;t=155">2:35</a> I think it is true. The PTs got <b>literally erased from existence</b> because everyone around them believed it. Society literally <b>THOUGHT</b> the PTs out of reality. And if they can do that, then I&apos;m real sure they could do the inverse.

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• MA

  @mattsodano6264 · 2 months ago

  The Phantom Thieves started out as heroes trying to make the world a better place. Then when someone who found a way to actually achieve that goal came along, the Phantom Thieves stopped him all for their own selfish desires.<br><br>Perhaps it&apos;s true that you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Dr. Maruki was right about everything. And who knows, maybe he did bring back the real Kasumi after he finished rewriting reality.

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• AN

  @aneeshsrinivas892 · 2 months ago

  Honestly all maruki would have to do in order to create a utopia is make healing linear. And this is why his deal is better, he’d probably have the sense to make mental wounds heal like physical ones so it doesnt end up being mental debt.

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• GH

  @Ghoul_Wo1f · 3 years ago

  Tbh, 3rd semester is my favorite arc in all of P5R. <br><br>But this arc, oh boy. I really had mixed feelings who was in the right or wrong, cause both perspectives had their ups and downs between accepting reality or a false one. <br><br>But the characters of this arc, made it extremely amazing and relatable. Until the end, the true ending, it made me feel happy and sad at the same time. It felt perfect…

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