Randomly Fiddled With The Colors And Used A Bit Of The Real Kasumi's Sprite For The Eye Lashes And Beauty

Randomly fiddled with the colors and used a bit of the real Kasumi's sprite for the eye lashes and beauty mark and voila! What if though...

Weirdly enough, the screencaps for the CG cutscenes seem to be a lot easier to edit than the anime ones. Probably because they're usually much better quality whereas the anime ones just vary in quality (mostly shit though).

Seriously though, while probably done before, an AU where she survives but fails to save Sumire does have potential. Her Persona would either be the commonly HC'd Odette or the one I was picking for an AU I have where she survived, "Nettchen" (after the version of Beauty/Belle in the German variation of Beauty and the Beast titled, "Little Broomstick").

OG screencap I took, not TOO different as you can see but still:

So here's a commission I had done by the brilliant @xiewaz of Maruki basically IMMEDIATELY after finishing P5R, it's a really beautiful ode to perhaps my favourite character of all time and you should definitely go check out their other work.

Fun fact! Royal released in the West on my birthday. I T - W A S - M E A N T - T O - B E

So here are some quick Aesthetic Boards I did based on an idea that hit me, Monarch Maruki and Sumire (more context further down below):

Monarch!Sumi Aesthetic Board with a fairytale/Swan Lake theme: "Shattered Princess KaSumire"

Monarch!Maruki: "Sorrowful Savior Takuto"

This was an idea that hit me while chatting on Discord: So basically, if you don't complete Maruki's Confidant you'll be barred from the 3rd Semester and get the Vanilla ending instead right? Wellll... Considering all that, this means that he and Sumi will be left to their own devices... As in their own problems won't be solved. Sumi would more or less remain in her Kasumi delusion until the filter potentially wears off and Maruki disappears to god knows where.

The unwitting inaction from Joker would then have MAJOR consequences in Strikers since that game can take place after either timeline... Either one or the other or even both fall prey to EMMA and become Monarchs themselves:

Maruki is self-explanatory as his desire to help people consumes him and kickstarts his self-destruction, warping his cognition and wanting to spread the Jail's influence further. People who have their desires stolen would just be mindlessly happy and "cured" of trauma or hardships (big or small). Much like canon, he thinks he's "helping" them. Maruki's "crown" would be a gold crown of thorns (biblical influence anyone?), representing his savior/martyr complex and how much he's really hurting. Removing it represents him renouncing his "godhood" and taking steps to move on and heal himself.

Sumi's is more or less revolving around herself and desperation to keep up the Kasumi filter/charade. Her own delusion and self-hatred festering. It's basically her living an ideal fairytale and not wanting to leave it. Anyone who got their desires stolen would join the Kasumi delusion. Basically, they all would view her as her dead sister and address her as such. Her "crown" would be her sister's red ribbon that her Shadow wears and then removes, symbolizing her finally letting go and developing her own identity and independence.

Idk, I just feel like with all horrifying implications that the now optional Vanilla ending are giving out... I feel like they would be easy prey to EMMA. Especially at their most vulnerable states. They both have the blueprints for having a Jail; Just need a design, layout, cores, trauma cells, etc.

So I remembered doing a bit of digging on the possible meanings behind the fox statues that take the forefront of Akane's Jail and found this:

This definitely paints the symbolism in both a heartbreaking and even small heartwarming light due to a convo I had with a Twitter mutual about them.

All of this would make sense considering that the main puzzle is reuniting the Mother and Father Fox statues to open a path. Which can represent how she felt like her family became broken after her mother died. She wanted it all to be fixed so badly. When it was happy.

It helps that the locations/shrines you have to pray to in order to reach the Mother Fox shrine and reunite the statues are labeled: "Couple," "Harmony," "Parental," "Daughter," and "Fortune" respectively.

(I thought that comment from Makoto was interesting to note)

Another thing is that the whole puzzle is also primarily triggered by locating and activating the Father Fox shrine first.

Her Jail in general is just so subtle with the symbolism compared to the other Monarchs but at the same time it can show her isolation and feeling closed-off/not being willing to open up about her trauma. Because to her, no will listen or believe her. So minus well just hide. Despite her apparent anger and hatred towards Zenkichi though, she just wants it all to be ok again deep down. She wants her father back, she wants her mother back, she wanted all the happiness back that was abruptly taken away from her that day.

This is further supported by her Shadow's dialogue as she disappears (how he had changed after Aoi died):

But a summary: Akane's Jail can actually be much deeper when you really think about it as it's more than just her obsession with the PTs. It's also about an angry but traumatized kid who probably wanted her whole family back but probably knows that it just isn't possible so resorted to unhealthy coping mechanisms and lashing out instead along with feeling alone and neglected as a result of her father's absence along with being denied justice for her loss for 2 years.

And that's also part of why her character hits so close to home along with Zenkichi. At least for me.

Hello! I just read "Prison of Grief" today and I really enjoyed it but it hasn't been updated in a while so I wanted to ask if it's still being worked on? Thank you

Ooof! Don't worry! It's still alive and being worked on! The current chapter just had me and @creepymarsh stumped for a while along with irl things happening! We both feel really bad that it took so long but it should be out soon after we wrap it up (finally decided on where to stop), proofread it, and fill in any gaps in it. So sorry for long wait! All I can hint at is that this one is a huge doozy, utilizes a common Zenkichi HC, and that we're both pretty proud of it! ^_^

Ok so me and my husband were at a bookstore a long while back and I was skimming through a tarot book/guide and found this page and immediately thought about the PTs' glove colors. I did do some digging later on and it's pretty much accurate though the lists are a bit more of the basic colors but still this is interesting! Especially since tarot is often utilized in P5 and other entries (that and I grew very tired of the common, "their gloves represent their elements" takes).