You Know I've Always Wanted To Ask. And I Know It Might Be An Obvious Question. But I've Seen Your Phantom

You know I've always wanted to ask. And I know it might be an obvious question. But I've seen your phantom thief Maruki design. So does that mean you want Maruki to come back and join the thieves?

Absolutely! Maruki had definitely dealt with lots of injustice in his life on top of letting his trauma overtake and control him (best represented by Azathoth/Adam). Hell, Joker could have easily let him fall to his death but didn't. The kid knew that he was a man who was hurt badly to the point where his mindset became warped. He's basically what he could have become had he not met the group who kept him grounded (same with Akechi but there's not enough talk about how Maruki is a foil to Joker as well). He needs people who care about him and to take care of himself. But yeah, Maruki redemption, recovering, and becoming a PT? Hell yes!

Honestly, you hit the nail on the head on why Maruki's situation was so tragic and downright horrifying. It's ambiguous as to when he was in full control of his actions but regardless of how one spins it, it all leads back to Azathoth. There's just so much, "Ohhh he's a child groomer" takes but they're also missing the bigger picture. Design wise, Azathoth is a pretty cool looking Persona but then you go into the story and how it all goes down... He's basically the equivalent of a toxic friend/partner at best or even an abusive parent. Maruki deluded himself into believing that he's doing good when he's doing the opposite and Azathoth more or less allowed and/or worsened it. Also, the lead up to his fusing with Adam... How he felt that he lost because he "wasn't committed to" his words. Like honey no... No. And we all know what happened next. Also this dialogue also raised more questions of who was really in control:

It's labeled as ADAM saying it, not him. Also there was apparently canon evidence in a previous game (P3 I think) that fusing with a/your own Persona can actually KILL you. So with that in mind, Maruki was extremely lucky to have even survived to tell the tale.

He undeniably did wrong in so many ways and can't really be excused but at the same time he was clearly a broken man who genuinely wanted to do good but did and went about it in a very, very wrong way. That adds to the overall moral greyness and tragedy of his character.

I feel like, sometimes people just forget how traumatizing it must’ve been for Maruki to be a victim of a B&E. Then you add on him witnessing two murders, one attempted murder, and the survivor’s guilt that resulted from the whole ordeal… Yeah.

Was going through the P5S digital art book again and my KonoZen brain is going, "Mmm... Black and white theming..." with their designs here...

I mean, one is considered to be and compared to a villain by even his own teammates at one point while the other is adored and considers himself a hero all the way down to their irl and Metaverse/Monarch designs... But it turns out that Zenkichi is a genuinely nice guy with some issues and baggage while Konoe has A LOT more issues that involves untreated childhood trauma and a black and white view of justice. Mmm... This is so good and the foils are STRONG here!

# maruki did nothing wrong

Zenki~

Joker, Ann, and Yusuke tho... 👀

Also Joker having Dominatrix bangs is perfect!

the genderbent vers of phantom thieves except akira and akechi i made some time ago. just bc i didnt fully imagine their designs at the point lol so maybe i could include them afterwards..

edit: 9/4 included p5 protagonist(akira kurusu) and akechi goro