Persona, shadows

1. #1Persona

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   A Persona (ペルソナ, Perusona)? is a manifestation of a Persona user's personality in the Persona series, referred to as a "mask" for an individual to use to face hardship. Rather, the term "persona" is Latin for "mask."

   A Persona is similar to a Shadow. Shadows are malevolent manifestations of one's inner thoughts, while a Persona is a manifestation of the same feelings but tamed and trained.

   If an individual takes up a resolution in their heart, the Persona will undergo a metamorphosis into a stronger form.

   While the summoning sequence of a Persona differs from one installment to the next, a tradition that later adaptations follow is that blue-ish fire is always released when a Persona is invoked.

   A fight using Personas weighs on the user's mind and spirit. Continuous use of a Persona will eventually drain the user's strength and stamina. Using Persona skills requires "SP," or "Spirit Points."

   In the depths of human hearts, shared by all people, there is a domain where mythological archetypes dwell, and they grant an influence over an individual's personality development. Anecdotes of mythological divinities the world over probably exist because of that, so one could say that gods and demons exist not in Heaven and Hell but in the hearts of humanity. Personas even have an influence on physical and mental abilities, making their users superhumans, for example giving them mastery over weapons or resistance to terror and madness.

2. #2Persona user

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   A Persona user (ペルソナ使い, Perusona tsukai)?, also sometimes stylized as Persona-user, is a being, usually human, who has the supernatural ability to summon their Persona. After they obtain their Personas their physical and mental abilities increase to superhuman levels. Some Persona users can summon multiple Personas with the Wild Card.

3. #3Wild card

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   In the Persona series, the Wild Card (ワイルドカード, Wairudo Kaado)? is the ability to form a contract allowing one to access and summon multiple Personas and switch between them in battle, and the ability to change bonds into strength. The Wild Card is most closely related to the Fool Arcana, with its Tarot numeral being zero (0); however, stagnant Wild Cards can be associated with other Arcanas.

4. #4Tarot

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   The Tarot is a powerful thematic element of the Persona series, as it is used to help define a person in various ways, revealing what it is what they truly are under the everyday masks that culminate in the formation of a Persona. The Tarot cards and the concept of Persona are important elements in Jungian imagery and psychotherapy, which are the basis for the series.

   Tarot cards were used as obtainable items required for Persona summoning in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and were used as plot devices in Persona 3 and Persona 4. In the last two, only the Major Arcana of the Tarot were used, although the Minor Arcana were used in Persona 3 and Persona 4 Golden for Shuffle Time and as Incense Cards in the original Persona 3 games.

   The order of the eighth and eleventh arcana are interchangeable due to the influence of Rider-Waite decks in Tarot, as they reversed the original order of the two so their divination method would fit better with several astrology compendiums. In Persona 1 and 2, they follow the Rider-Waite order (Strength being VIII and Justice being XI), while in Persona 3 onward they follow the Tarot of Marseilles order (Justice being VIII and Strength being XI).

5. #5Utimate persona

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   An ultimate Persona (最強ペルソナ, Saikyou Perusona)? or advanced Persona (後期ペルソナ, Kouki Perusona)? is a Persona formed when an individual undergoes a great change or gains a new sense of resolve. These Personas are among the strongest that their users can summon and typically represent gods or similarly powerful entities as a result. As their users continue to develop, ultimate Personas can gain new forms or fuse with initial Personas, as seen in Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal, respectively. In most games, ultimate Personas come with signature skills and more powerful resistances.

   In Megami Ibunroku Persona through Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, these Personas are gained all at once with only a few exceptions, representing steps the respective parties take together. From Persona 3 onward, second awakenings are more character-specific and are often prompted by story, Social Link or Confidant events.

   Initial Personas can gain the same amount of strength as ultimate Personas. This only occurs when the Persona-user in question rejects their second awakening.

6. #6Awakening

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   The awakening of a Persona in someone with the ability to summon and command them can depend on several internal and external factors, but the most recurrent way in users is sudden danger or an emotional episode. In Megami Ibunroku Persona, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, the main casts are confronted by threats from demons or other Personas, which fully activate their Persona abilities and allow them to defend themselves. An example of an emotional awakening is with Kei Nanjo, who sees his retainer Yamaoka mortally wounded by demons. Danger may be deliberately placed before the characters to prompt their awakening, as in Eternal Punishment where JOKER summons demons and forces Maya Amano, Ulala Serizawa and Katsuya Suou to awaken to their Personas.

   In Persona 3, Persona awakenings depicted in the game show that a sudden danger prompted them to appear. Mitsuru Kirijo had joined her father on an expedition into Tartarus, and when he was attacked by Shadows she awakened to Penthesilea. Similar happenings occur with Akihiko Sanada, Junpei Iori, Yukari Takeba, Ken Amada and Koromaru. An exception is Fuuka Yamagishi, who awoke to her Persona naturally when she wanted to protect others. The protagonist's power was awakened through a combination of danger, his contract with Igor and some strange prompt from the boy Pharos. Persona 3 also mentions that Persona users must have the "potential."

   Persona 4 shows awakening in a slightly different way. While the protagonist Yu Narukami awakens to his Persona ability when attacked by Shadows, the other members of the Investigation Team are faced with their berserk Shadow Selves, which must be defeated and accepted before they transform into Personas.

   In Persona 5, each Persona awakening is triggered by the user facing against some detested fate or person, such as Ryuji Sakamoto facing down his tormentor Suguru Kamoshida; every member of the Phantom Thieves makes a resolve to stand against their oppressors. The process is traumatic, as the user is wracked with debilitating pain.

   Persona 5 also shows the idea of a false, or incomplete awakening, with both Haru and Sumire awakening their personas only to have their true awakenings later. In Haru's case, her incomplete awakening led to her persona being unable to fully manifest. In Persona 5 Strikers, a similar event occurs, with Sophia using a pseudo-persona for much of the game and only awakening her true persona later on after she gained a stronger sense of self and rebellion.

   In virtually every case of awakening since Persona 3, the process is physically and mentally exhausting, with the newly-awakened user needing to rest away from the field of battle for a time.

7. #7Loss of Control

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   While Philemon describes the Personas as reflections of a character's inner self, there have been many instances where a Persona has rebelled against their user. Every recorded incident has either been due to the extremely risky procedure of artificial Persona awakening, or external factors.

   In Persona 3, for example, Strega members must take medication to prevent losing control of their Persona and being killed by it, as they are a group of artificial Persona users. In Persona 3 The Movie, Shinjiro is strangled by his Persona Castor. Additionally, during Megami Ibunroku Persona, Takahisa Kandori loses control of his Persona and it possesses him, turning him into a demon. However, this was because his Persona was actually Nyarlathotep in disguise.

   In Persona 4, Teddie mentions that denying a Shadow's message again after it has manifested as a Persona can result in it devolving back into a Shadow and attempting to kill its user. Additionally, according to the Malevolent Entity, a Persona will revert into a Shadow if its user experiences extreme psychological stress, allowing him to then use it to create a body to destroy the outer world. In reality, this was merely a miscalculation by the Malevolent Entity; Shadows that have reverted from Personas are much more obedient to their hosts due to its experience as a Persona, making it very difficult for the Malevolent Entity to directly take them as a part of its body without any backlash, forcing him to change his plan. This reversion is also seen in Persona 4 The Animation, where Izanagi dissolves into Shadow Yu and reforms back forth simply by being talked to, outlining how greatly Yu relied on his friends. Due to the nature of this occurrence, and how Yu Narukami was under a great deal of emotional stress during his fight with Margaret, this can be seen as supporting evidence for the Malevolent Entity's remarks.

   Persona 5 Royal marks the first time where Personas can completely go out of control and take over their users due to a combination of external influence and their own grief. Takuto Maruki obtained his Persona after his fiancée Rumi's parents were murdered and she subsequently fell into catatonic depression. This granted him the power to alter anyone's cognition. Maruki later uses this power to restrain Sumire Yoshizawa, causing her persona, Cendrillon to go berserk. In addition, Maruki's ultimate Persona, Adam Kadmon, assumes full control over Maruki after he willingly surrenders himself to his own Persona in desperation, raising its strength to an almost godlike level.

   Just like demons fused by the Cathedral of Shadows in Megami Tensei games, Personas cannot be controlled by a person that is not of an equal or greater strength than it, which is the reason why the Velvet Room usually refuses to fuse Personas that are of a higher level than its guest. The actual effects are seen in Persona Q, where Elizabeth attempts to use a Zeus that is one level higher than herself against the party, and ends up possessed by it in the process. However, in Persona 5, should the protagonist progress the Strength Confidant enough, they are allowed to pay to fuse Personas at a higher level. In Persona 5 Royal this is given earlier, but with a higher cost until the protagonist maxes the Confidant.

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