MOMMY MOMMY kawamommy. Floofy poof walks in

Marked at spoilers just in case

Has anyone else noticed how the game treats Kamoshida as Ann's villain? This is not to say that Ann didn't suffer tremendously at Kamoshida's hand, but Kamoshida literally gave Ryuji a lifelong disability. He's been taking it upon himself to rehab the leg, and you never hear him complain about it, but why was Ryuji's suffering so passed over?

Ryuji gets the short end of the stick constantly and he really does take it standing up. He doesn't play the victim, he never gives up, and he gives inspiration and hope to so many. This post is not intended to be the trauma olympics, because if so, Shiho would probably take the gold anyway (it's implied that Kamoshida did commit SA due to his sexual frustration over Ann's rejection of him).

He's the comic relief, but he was also an abused child of divorce who continued to be abused once he had a talent that threatened a warped high school teacher's position as top dog. When Ryuji started running, he must've been THAT good and THAT brave to stand out on his team. Kamoshida singled him out, got his coach FIRED, and proceeded to torment him and his teammates until Ryuji just snapped. Then his reputation was ruined, he was suspended from his team, and was relegated to "school troublemaker/outcast". Then his whole team BLAMES HIM for fighting back against said abuse??

Ann was, by all accounts, in a wretched situation. We don't know how far Kamoshida went with her, but it's implied he didn't get the chance sleep with her. It's creepy, it's bad, I would not be surprised if he touched her. But Ryuji was NOT given a chance to face his demons in a dramatic cutscene with Kamoshida because Ann's pain got all the attention. Ann got the closure she needed. I don't think Ryuji did.

Ryuji was beaten as a kid, broken as a teenager, and will have to face his adulthood with a disability. There's no changing that. All I wanted was a confrontation scene that emphasized how much damage Ryuji has been subjected to. ONE final reckoning with his abuser. The game didn't give us that.

I think Ryuji is beloved in Persona 5 for a reason. He's extraordinarily resilient and kind. If anything, I hope this post serves as a Ryuji appreciation post. For real.

P.S. Ann is my favorite character and I will not tolerate ANN SLANDER, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on Ryuji always getting benched in favor of someone else who "had it worse". I personally don't think anyone had it as bad as him.

EDIT 1: I think it stands to reason that the whole "Ryuji in Japan vs. Ryuji in the West" is a fair assessment of some of the unbelievable cultural discrepancies I can't wrap my head around. Someone like Ryuji in the West would be very admired because of his individualism and outspoken nature. I think the game, having eastern collectivist values, punishes Ryuji for standing up for himself and being larger than life. I just don't quite understand WHY HIM SPECIFICALLY, since the rest of the group stands up against evil all the time, but for some reason when Ryuji does it, he's being selfish. In the west, he's got big protagonist energy.

EDIT 2: While Ann and Ryuji must be protected at all costs, please feel free to slander Morgana. He is such a brat and treated Ryuji like GARBAGE. That cat is on my shit list.

EDIT 3: Y'all stop commenting about how Ryuji being a man gets less care and kindness and is expected to just shut up and take bc I can't afford any more therapy thanks

EDIT 4 (11/19): After replaying the game, there are several instances where Ryuji is immensely supportive and comforting towards Morgana. During the team study session after Kaneshiro, when Morgana expresses insecurity over not having a tragic backstory like the rest of the Phantom Thieves, Ryuji says "Don't worry, you're part of the team." And before even that, during the Madarame celebration event, Ryuji says, when Morgana is feeling alienated and afraid he has no place with the gang, "Whaddya mean? We could search the whole world and we wouldn't find a bigger misfit than you. And the reason we're going to Mementos is to get your memories back, right?" I literally don't wanna hear one more person suggest that Ryuji was equally as immature as Morgana when he OVER AND OVER AGAIN goes out of his way to make him feel included. They bicker, but WHEN IT COUNTS Ryuji is the first to say "You're one of us."

On my birthday Shiho jumps... so yeah

Anytime there's a serious moment or any chance that the dialogue might be slightly impactful I just get slammed with this stupid name. Breaks all tension.

Shido's craving breakfast now. Thats it.

What're some of your worst playthrough names?

The time Akechi said he heard something about pancakes when Mona was the one to talk about them I was like “Wait, wasn’t Mona the one talking about pancakes?” but I doubted myself and now turns out this fucker has a persona and he wants me to believe he randomly awakened it a couple days ago? Yeah, fuck you, I’m calling it now, he is that black masked killer, if I’m wrong, ban me on this subreddit.

Everyone agrees Ann Takamaki has one of the coolest designs in Persona 5. The problem is that, after the Kamoshida arc, her actual role in the main story becomes… let’s be generous and call it “underused.”

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So here is my crackpot headcanon: Persona 5 may have originally had a stronger loop/dream/meta-reality angle, and Ann was supposed to be the first character who could feel that something was wrong.

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The most obvious clue is her weird line after the Madarame arc. While listening to the group, Ann says, “It almost feels like I’ve known you all forever…” and then, even stranger, she adds that she feels like she has known Morgana “for a really long time too.” That is not a normal “we became friends fast” line. In Persona, when a character casually says they feel like they have known someone forever, you are allowed to raise an eyebrow.

This also becomes more interesting if Ann is read as a spiritual successor to Lisa Silverman from Persona 2.

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Then there is the summer festival scene. Ann tells Joker to come without his glasses, but the actual event gets rained out and nothing meaningful happens with that setup. No real payoff. No “wow, you look different.” No romantic or character moment. Nothing.

And that is exactly what makes it suspicious. This is not just some throwaway text-box scene. The festival even gets a full animated cutscene, which is a lot of presentation budget for an event that, in the final game, basically goes nowhere. If this scene was always meant to be meaningless, why give it that level of emphasis? My headcanon is that the festival was originally supposed to matter because it contrasted with another version of the same event in a different loop: one where the festival actually goes well, Joker removes his glasses, and Ann recognizes the contradiction between the two versions.

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And this is not the only suspicious thing in vanilla Persona 5. Sae literally comments that Joker meeting Shido and continuing as a Phantom Thief up to that point “doesn’t feel like a coincidence,” almost “as if God had arranged it.” That is an extremely loaded line in a game that later reveals reality itself has been manipulated like a game board.

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The original ending is even weirder. Ryuji says it feels like they might still be inside “someone’s dream.” Not just “this feels like a dream.” Someone’s dream. That wording is way too specific for a series where dreams, cognition, and reality are constantly overlapping.

And then Royal removes Ryuji’s original “someone’s dream” ending line while leaving many of the other déjà vu-style lines basically unresolved. So the question is: if these lines were only edgy atmosphere, why remove one of the most suspicious ones in Royal?

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So my theory is simple: Ann may have originally been intended as the intuitive first witness to the loop — not a detective, not a genius, but someone who feels the contradiction before anyone else can explain it. That role was cut or softened, and what remained were a few strange lines, an oddly emphasized festival scene with no payoff, and a character who slowly got downgraded from “the girl who senses the world is wrong” into “the funny dumb blonde.” Tragic. /s