Pystoria - Invidious

Pystoria

I mainly upload music videos and sometimes rants about the games I play.

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My profile pic is Vishnu from Persona 1 & 2 (by @Leru_j on Twitter!), and my header is what followed a High-Five Fake Out during a date in The Sims 3.

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Pystoria

I was about to record a video about him but realized I don't have a lot to say, but I love Kandori. He's probably my favorite Persona antagonist, maybe my favorite Megami Tensei antagonist of all time. In a series all about gods and demons who want to use or destroy humanity, having a human take their place was such a good call for the first Persona game.

He seems like such a stereotypical, love-to-hate him, forgettable businessman type of supervillain who wants nothing more to ascend to godhood. That's exactly what I thought of him the first time I played Persona 1, but then I made it to the end of Deva Yuga, and I saw him sitting on the floor, as aimless as he accused the party of being the entire game. He won - he became a god after gaining the power to manipulate reality, but with nothing left to accomplish, he had nothing left to live for.

If you have nothing but your accomplishments, you have nothing at all. That's what I took away from him, especially with what the party members say about him and the game's stance that you don't even need a specific purpose in life for yours to be valuable. But while the party members came together and became more than themselves as they searched for their own answers, Kandori did nothing but manipulate people to get to the top. He had no principles, no meaningful relationships, and no reasons other than control.

One of the most common ideas from the Persona antagonists (and by extension, the games themselves) is the idea that, while most people do not think deeply about their own thoughts and behavior, the player characters are different. "People see what they want to see, and believe what they want to believe" (from Persona 4). Kandori was the first example of this idea - he urges the party members to save Maki before she shuts herself away for good, forcing herself to live in a much more secluded, but just as self-destructive, way than Kandori himself had.

In Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, he is resigned to his fate, not accepting the fact that anyone can change for the better and actively threatening those who reach out to him in spite of that. And yet, he reaches out to Tatsuya, seeing himself in the boy just as he saw himself in Maki years earlier. He's the same, pathetic man, still trapped in a self-made prison that leads to his own death.

The criteria for becoming a Persona-user is not very consistent, but a common element is that a person must have a strong sense of self. Even characters like Ayase, who largely follow the crowd, can be argued to possess this ability, earning their Personas in the process. Kandori, however, while strong-willed, has no real identity beyond his power, so it's no surprise Nyarlathotep took the place of what could have been a true Persona.

Thanks for reading. What's in your true mind?

1 month ago | [YT] | 18

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Pystoria

Damn!!! No one cares, but because of this, I unlisted a few other disturbing images videos. It is what it is. I hope you are doing well and have a slay day regardless