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〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Minato Arisato (in the movies, Makoto Yuki)
CHARACTER AGE: 17
SERIES: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
CHRONOLOGY: Post-game, with a lot of influence taken from the movies currently being released.
CLASS: Hero. Basically 1000% hero.
HOUSING: Heropa #015.
BACKGROUND: History link.
As for Minato's role in the story, put simply he is a martyr. In 1999 when Minato was seven years old, the ultimate Persona / Shadow of the Death Arcana, Thanatos, escaped and killed his parents while in the Dark Hour, a hidden period of time at midnight. Aigis, a combat robot, was pursuing Thanatos, and sealed it inside of child Minato since she knew she couldn't defeat it. This set a precedent of repression for Minato-- he bounced from relative to relative for the next ten years, constantly switching schools, and living in near complete apathy. He could barely remember his parents or their deaths, and certainly not the details of it. It is confirmed in the first movie that he's been experiencing the Dark Hour every night since then, which is why he isn't surprised at all in the beginning of the game.
Throughout the plot of the game itself, Minato embodies the role of unwavering, stalwart leader of SEES, a group of high schoolers dedicated to destroying Shadows, the monsters that prowl the Dark Hour. He grows into being a very kind person as his apathy slowly crumbles, even if he never really gets much more talkative. His Social Links are instrumental in pulling him out of his shell. In the end, Minato sacrifices himself to seal Nyx, a great evil trying to bring about Armageddon due to SEES's actions. We learn in the Answer that he actually didn't seal Nyx-- he sealed Erebus, the expression of humanity's despair trying to reach Nyx and awaken it. His soul is bound for eternity as the seal.
His ultimate Persona is Messiah, basically cementing that his function is, as fandom puts it, to be blue-haired Jesus. Minato is a story of isolation and bonds, and eventually selflessness.
PERSONALITY: Probably the most obvious facet of Minato's personality is his odd dichotomy between how social and how simultaneously untalkative he is. He is very much pro-active, filling up every moment of his day with something productive, from carefully managing his social life to keeping up with school work and level grinding in Tartarus. It's hard to doubt how outgoing he is in light of that-- he really only lays around after truly exhausting trials, when he's sleeping and forcibly unconscious. The rest of the time we have to interpret his tendency toward Social Linking, and being an effective team leader, as him being incredibly and relentlessly busy. He rarely seems to get tired of it, either. Despite all that, he is extremely reserved. He is not inclined to speak about himself and will go quite a ways to redirect a conversation back onto the other person. It takes a lot of time and built up trust for him to capitulate and reveal his inner feelings.
He also tends not to say too much at once, overall; in the first movie, he's essentially silent whenever he can get away with it, and when asked to do something, just gives a short I understand in response. His other trademark phrase is I don't care or it doesn't matter. Now that he's post-canon and has opened up some, he is capable of going on longer monologues (perhaps two or three short paragraphs) when the occasion calls for it. For the most part, Minato can get over his own misgivings for the sake of the other person in the conversation when he feels it's warranted. The vast majority of the time he places everyone else as a higher priority than himself even in conversation, which is not surprising given how self-sacrificing and loyal he is. He will give absolutely anyone a fair chance and put all of his not inconsiderable effort into befriending them. Although this trait could be said to be a habit directly learned from Social Links, I would argue that Minato wouldn't have been so successful at them in the first place if he weren't innately inclined to be so tolerant and forgiving.
There are few things he won't accept with a straight face, as we see demonstrably time and again-- in his exposure to the Dark Hour, in being threatened with guns, and in the Devil link with Tanaka, among others. It leads to him being a fairly flat and unreactive person overall. He is not without a sense of humor, though it's a very dry one, to the extent that many times the listener isn't sure whether he's actually making a joke or not. It's frequently mis-applied (taunting the punk in Tatsumi Port Island, for example). Minato can be more obvious when he's intentionally trying to lighten the mood, too. He has a casual speaking style and is prone to extremely short sentences; he phrases things passively, but is very direct. He doesn't hesitate to say what he's thinking, and will cater his responses to the other person, aiming for a specific reaction from them and unashamed about going for it. Yet he is not fond of conflict, and his immense charisma tends to smooth over any points of contention, although he isn't perfect and there are definitely cases where he flubs and has to repair the relationship.
In the context of his willing martyr's death in canon, something he explicitly did with the support of and for the sake of all the close relationships he'd made over the previous year, we're left forced to conclude that he is extremely loyal. Minato doesn't spare a single second thought over his choices-- he is deliberate and decisive-- and that extends fully to his commitment to his friends, and particularly to SEES. He signed Pharos' contract in the first scene without much thinking about it, but later on after he begins to understand it, he doesn't try to take it back or rail against that choice as would be natural. It really takes a remarkable person to let himself die for the sake of the world without a single outward instance of second guessing or regret.
However, I don't think that means he doesn't have any regret at all. Minato is simply very good at hiding things and keeping them to himself, and moreover denying their existence entirely. When he forgot what happened with his parents' death and then having Death itself sealed in him, that was not a supernatural occurrence. It was a psychological reaction, something he did as self-protection, though perhaps not consciously. Regardless, that one instance, and Minato's later extreme unconcern about all of the fairly insane things he's subjected to, make it obvious how much he relies on repression to get through the difficult parts of his life. He straight-forwardly tells Yukari that he's not scared of dying at all, and he doesn't flinch no matter what danger he's faced with. This isn't admirable; it's flagrantly unhealthy. The thing about habitual repression is that it very much becomes that: habitual, and it's hard to rise above that. When things get tough, Minato shuts down, becomes even flatter than normal-- much as we see him in the very start of the game-- and focuses exclusively on what needs to be done.
We do see a frankly creepy aspect to him. His expression when first summoning can only be described as insane, especially given the contrast to his ordinarily flat affect. He grins maniacally and a few moments later, Thanatos is tearing apart his normal Persona, Orpheus, to emerge and defeat Shadows rather gruesomely. There is a dark, unhinged aspect to Minato that is very rarely seen, but is undeniably there. I presume it comes from a combination of having Death sealed inside him during his formative years, seeing the Dark Hour so often, and repressing the traumatic memories of his parents' deaths. Not to mention how he isolated himself and received absolutely zero support from anyone (through his own doing) for dealing with any of these things. He is absolutely and flatly uncaring when the train is about to crash during the second full moon, which is a major red flag.
His apathy is a coping mechanism, and doesn't mean that he doesn't have any feelings beneath that; it simply means that he isn't acknowledging, admitting, or dealing with them. Beneath everything Minato feels quite strongly, and the magnitude of those emotions overwhelm him. That's why he pushes them down so often. Being an orphan, being almost entirely alone for ten years, witnessing the Dark Hour night after night, being forced into a tragic fate and even then not realizing he would be stuck with Erebus, the embodiment of human misery, until it happened... This is a lot for anyone to handle, much less a relatively normal person of seventeen years. Minato accepts his fate easily but secretly struggles with how much he's allowed to be selfish. He might not show regrets, but he fights with himself nearly constantly on how much he can afford to be isolated, and how much to care, as well as what it means for him to die.
At heart he is as human as anyone else, and yearns to make his own choices and be given the chance to finally in his life find happiness. But he can't place that desire over his much stronger loyalty to his friends, and his death and ongoing self-sacrifice has to happen for their sake. He is forced to contend with whether he can accept his own right to feel suffering in light of how little choice he has in facing it. He's left with, by necessity, a certain philosophical bent just to contend with the scope of issues he faces.
This is a complicated issue and one Minato himself, when he isn't outright avoiding it, largely fails at putting into words. He wouldn't have nearly so much trouble if it weren't for how strong his morals are. He has a clear line on what is and isn't acceptable, and though he readily forgives even incredibly heinous crimes, he doesn't waver at all on what he does consider a crime. He holds himself to a high standard, and anyone he trusts is similarly held to that standard. There is a point after which he is not so magnanimous, and that is harming his friends in any way. He won't escalate any fight or argument needlessly, granted, but he won't forget anyone who's proven themselves dangerous to those he's loyal to, and he isn't afraid to take action about it in order to protect them. Letting others determine their own fates is something he feels strongly about, but he also feels confident on what friendship means, and will step in if he thinks it's welcome.
At the end of the day, the connections he's made with others are really what define Minato. He feels loneliness keenly, having subjected himself to it for so many years after his parents' death, and that makes him afraid to have to experience it again. Yukari calls him an extremely lonely person. In rare instances he can become sharp and almost aggressive in order to defend what's important to him, a far cry from his early blank-faced equanimity. He's not an absolute people-pleaser.
Minato is otherwise deeply kind. For all his personal flaws and darker thoughts, he is persistent, patient, and unflagging in his determination, so he's not about to give up on anything asked of him. It's not that he cares if he's leader, it's just that it's what those around him needed him to be. Where he goes from here will be, as always is true for him, very much determined by who he meets and how they grow alongside him. Especially since he will be immensely struggling-- once again-- with being alive and every implication that comes with that.
POWER: Minato can summon Persona and is unique in P3 for being able to summon multiple different ones. It's an ability known as Wild Card. This is pretty much his only notable power, as such, but it has the potential to be overpowered on its own, so let me know if it needs capping. I've written out the list of Persona he'd have with him, appropriate for P3 endgame.
As an additional joke power, I'd like for him to be able to hand any clothes to anyone and have them put them on. Just a silly reference to how he manages to get his teammates to wear ridiculous things.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: [Minato's calm, unconcerned face addresses the network. A perceptive audience might notice some tension at the edges.]
Hi. I have a question. [Beat of silence.] Am I still dead at home?
Thank you. [Well, that's-- blunt.]
Continued in a thread from the test drive. (I realized later that as per the response on the FAQ, Koromaru wouldn't be able to summon his Persona, so just put that tidbit down to Minato not knowing that.)
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: If there's anyone not prone to freaking out over the circumstances, it's Minato. He'll admit to some pervading confusion, but the truth is, he's so dazed from being pulled from Erebus that he hasn't even adjusted to being alive yet, much less started to think about where he is. He realizes everyone's speaking English and he can only somewhat understand them, but that's the extent of his awareness. Minato's so used to strange mental happenings that it's the least surprising part of this.
He's altogether numbed, walking around mechanically, an old familiar blank look on his face. Much like when he'd first come to Iwatodai. It is tempting, very tempting, to slide back into that forgetting he'd embraced after his parents' deaths, and push aside all of that confusion. Just exist, just move forward. That's easiest, right? Yet he knows better by now. All of his Social Links have taught him that much, and he tries to pull himself together. Since he looks like any other Japanese teenager (albeit with blue hair) he's not very recognizable as an imPort and thus isn't approached often. He wanders until he sees the ad for a free malt.
Ah. It belatedly occurs to him that he's thirsty. Right, that's what that feeling is. Minato enters and near-silently accepts his malt-- plain chocolate-- then goes to sit on a bench out on the street, sipping it. As he starts to come back to himself, he reaches for his mp3 player draped around his neck, checking that it still works. His concern for it causes the first palpable emotion to cross his face: furrowed brows, uncertain eyes. He doesn't fiddle with his headphones; he places one hand on the player and rests it there.
He wonders if it's possible to find his friends here. He wants to see them alive for himself, see proof that his sacrifice was worth it. That's really all that matters.
FINAL NOTES: For inventory, he will be wearing his Gekkoukan school uniform as usual, have his headphones and mp3 player, and his Evoker, the gun-shaped object used to summon Persona.
CHARACTER NAME: Minato Arisato (in the movies, Makoto Yuki)
CHARACTER AGE: 17
SERIES: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
CHRONOLOGY: Post-game, with a lot of influence taken from the movies currently being released.
CLASS: Hero. Basically 1000% hero.
HOUSING: Heropa #015.
BACKGROUND: History link.
As for Minato's role in the story, put simply he is a martyr. In 1999 when Minato was seven years old, the ultimate Persona / Shadow of the Death Arcana, Thanatos, escaped and killed his parents while in the Dark Hour, a hidden period of time at midnight. Aigis, a combat robot, was pursuing Thanatos, and sealed it inside of child Minato since she knew she couldn't defeat it. This set a precedent of repression for Minato-- he bounced from relative to relative for the next ten years, constantly switching schools, and living in near complete apathy. He could barely remember his parents or their deaths, and certainly not the details of it. It is confirmed in the first movie that he's been experiencing the Dark Hour every night since then, which is why he isn't surprised at all in the beginning of the game.
Throughout the plot of the game itself, Minato embodies the role of unwavering, stalwart leader of SEES, a group of high schoolers dedicated to destroying Shadows, the monsters that prowl the Dark Hour. He grows into being a very kind person as his apathy slowly crumbles, even if he never really gets much more talkative. His Social Links are instrumental in pulling him out of his shell. In the end, Minato sacrifices himself to seal Nyx, a great evil trying to bring about Armageddon due to SEES's actions. We learn in the Answer that he actually didn't seal Nyx-- he sealed Erebus, the expression of humanity's despair trying to reach Nyx and awaken it. His soul is bound for eternity as the seal.
His ultimate Persona is Messiah, basically cementing that his function is, as fandom puts it, to be blue-haired Jesus. Minato is a story of isolation and bonds, and eventually selflessness.
PERSONALITY: Probably the most obvious facet of Minato's personality is his odd dichotomy between how social and how simultaneously untalkative he is. He is very much pro-active, filling up every moment of his day with something productive, from carefully managing his social life to keeping up with school work and level grinding in Tartarus. It's hard to doubt how outgoing he is in light of that-- he really only lays around after truly exhausting trials, when he's sleeping and forcibly unconscious. The rest of the time we have to interpret his tendency toward Social Linking, and being an effective team leader, as him being incredibly and relentlessly busy. He rarely seems to get tired of it, either. Despite all that, he is extremely reserved. He is not inclined to speak about himself and will go quite a ways to redirect a conversation back onto the other person. It takes a lot of time and built up trust for him to capitulate and reveal his inner feelings.
He also tends not to say too much at once, overall; in the first movie, he's essentially silent whenever he can get away with it, and when asked to do something, just gives a short I understand in response. His other trademark phrase is I don't care or it doesn't matter. Now that he's post-canon and has opened up some, he is capable of going on longer monologues (perhaps two or three short paragraphs) when the occasion calls for it. For the most part, Minato can get over his own misgivings for the sake of the other person in the conversation when he feels it's warranted. The vast majority of the time he places everyone else as a higher priority than himself even in conversation, which is not surprising given how self-sacrificing and loyal he is. He will give absolutely anyone a fair chance and put all of his not inconsiderable effort into befriending them. Although this trait could be said to be a habit directly learned from Social Links, I would argue that Minato wouldn't have been so successful at them in the first place if he weren't innately inclined to be so tolerant and forgiving.
There are few things he won't accept with a straight face, as we see demonstrably time and again-- in his exposure to the Dark Hour, in being threatened with guns, and in the Devil link with Tanaka, among others. It leads to him being a fairly flat and unreactive person overall. He is not without a sense of humor, though it's a very dry one, to the extent that many times the listener isn't sure whether he's actually making a joke or not. It's frequently mis-applied (taunting the punk in Tatsumi Port Island, for example). Minato can be more obvious when he's intentionally trying to lighten the mood, too. He has a casual speaking style and is prone to extremely short sentences; he phrases things passively, but is very direct. He doesn't hesitate to say what he's thinking, and will cater his responses to the other person, aiming for a specific reaction from them and unashamed about going for it. Yet he is not fond of conflict, and his immense charisma tends to smooth over any points of contention, although he isn't perfect and there are definitely cases where he flubs and has to repair the relationship.
In the context of his willing martyr's death in canon, something he explicitly did with the support of and for the sake of all the close relationships he'd made over the previous year, we're left forced to conclude that he is extremely loyal. Minato doesn't spare a single second thought over his choices-- he is deliberate and decisive-- and that extends fully to his commitment to his friends, and particularly to SEES. He signed Pharos' contract in the first scene without much thinking about it, but later on after he begins to understand it, he doesn't try to take it back or rail against that choice as would be natural. It really takes a remarkable person to let himself die for the sake of the world without a single outward instance of second guessing or regret.
However, I don't think that means he doesn't have any regret at all. Minato is simply very good at hiding things and keeping them to himself, and moreover denying their existence entirely. When he forgot what happened with his parents' death and then having Death itself sealed in him, that was not a supernatural occurrence. It was a psychological reaction, something he did as self-protection, though perhaps not consciously. Regardless, that one instance, and Minato's later extreme unconcern about all of the fairly insane things he's subjected to, make it obvious how much he relies on repression to get through the difficult parts of his life. He straight-forwardly tells Yukari that he's not scared of dying at all, and he doesn't flinch no matter what danger he's faced with. This isn't admirable; it's flagrantly unhealthy. The thing about habitual repression is that it very much becomes that: habitual, and it's hard to rise above that. When things get tough, Minato shuts down, becomes even flatter than normal-- much as we see him in the very start of the game-- and focuses exclusively on what needs to be done.
We do see a frankly creepy aspect to him. His expression when first summoning can only be described as insane, especially given the contrast to his ordinarily flat affect. He grins maniacally and a few moments later, Thanatos is tearing apart his normal Persona, Orpheus, to emerge and defeat Shadows rather gruesomely. There is a dark, unhinged aspect to Minato that is very rarely seen, but is undeniably there. I presume it comes from a combination of having Death sealed inside him during his formative years, seeing the Dark Hour so often, and repressing the traumatic memories of his parents' deaths. Not to mention how he isolated himself and received absolutely zero support from anyone (through his own doing) for dealing with any of these things. He is absolutely and flatly uncaring when the train is about to crash during the second full moon, which is a major red flag.
His apathy is a coping mechanism, and doesn't mean that he doesn't have any feelings beneath that; it simply means that he isn't acknowledging, admitting, or dealing with them. Beneath everything Minato feels quite strongly, and the magnitude of those emotions overwhelm him. That's why he pushes them down so often. Being an orphan, being almost entirely alone for ten years, witnessing the Dark Hour night after night, being forced into a tragic fate and even then not realizing he would be stuck with Erebus, the embodiment of human misery, until it happened... This is a lot for anyone to handle, much less a relatively normal person of seventeen years. Minato accepts his fate easily but secretly struggles with how much he's allowed to be selfish. He might not show regrets, but he fights with himself nearly constantly on how much he can afford to be isolated, and how much to care, as well as what it means for him to die.
At heart he is as human as anyone else, and yearns to make his own choices and be given the chance to finally in his life find happiness. But he can't place that desire over his much stronger loyalty to his friends, and his death and ongoing self-sacrifice has to happen for their sake. He is forced to contend with whether he can accept his own right to feel suffering in light of how little choice he has in facing it. He's left with, by necessity, a certain philosophical bent just to contend with the scope of issues he faces.
This is a complicated issue and one Minato himself, when he isn't outright avoiding it, largely fails at putting into words. He wouldn't have nearly so much trouble if it weren't for how strong his morals are. He has a clear line on what is and isn't acceptable, and though he readily forgives even incredibly heinous crimes, he doesn't waver at all on what he does consider a crime. He holds himself to a high standard, and anyone he trusts is similarly held to that standard. There is a point after which he is not so magnanimous, and that is harming his friends in any way. He won't escalate any fight or argument needlessly, granted, but he won't forget anyone who's proven themselves dangerous to those he's loyal to, and he isn't afraid to take action about it in order to protect them. Letting others determine their own fates is something he feels strongly about, but he also feels confident on what friendship means, and will step in if he thinks it's welcome.
At the end of the day, the connections he's made with others are really what define Minato. He feels loneliness keenly, having subjected himself to it for so many years after his parents' death, and that makes him afraid to have to experience it again. Yukari calls him an extremely lonely person. In rare instances he can become sharp and almost aggressive in order to defend what's important to him, a far cry from his early blank-faced equanimity. He's not an absolute people-pleaser.
Minato is otherwise deeply kind. For all his personal flaws and darker thoughts, he is persistent, patient, and unflagging in his determination, so he's not about to give up on anything asked of him. It's not that he cares if he's leader, it's just that it's what those around him needed him to be. Where he goes from here will be, as always is true for him, very much determined by who he meets and how they grow alongside him. Especially since he will be immensely struggling-- once again-- with being alive and every implication that comes with that.
POWER: Minato can summon Persona and is unique in P3 for being able to summon multiple different ones. It's an ability known as Wild Card. This is pretty much his only notable power, as such, but it has the potential to be overpowered on its own, so let me know if it needs capping. I've written out the list of Persona he'd have with him, appropriate for P3 endgame.
As an additional joke power, I'd like for him to be able to hand any clothes to anyone and have them put them on. Just a silly reference to how he manages to get his teammates to wear ridiculous things.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: [Minato's calm, unconcerned face addresses the network. A perceptive audience might notice some tension at the edges.]
Hi. I have a question. [Beat of silence.] Am I still dead at home?
Thank you. [Well, that's-- blunt.]
Continued in a thread from the test drive. (I realized later that as per the response on the FAQ, Koromaru wouldn't be able to summon his Persona, so just put that tidbit down to Minato not knowing that.)
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: If there's anyone not prone to freaking out over the circumstances, it's Minato. He'll admit to some pervading confusion, but the truth is, he's so dazed from being pulled from Erebus that he hasn't even adjusted to being alive yet, much less started to think about where he is. He realizes everyone's speaking English and he can only somewhat understand them, but that's the extent of his awareness. Minato's so used to strange mental happenings that it's the least surprising part of this.
He's altogether numbed, walking around mechanically, an old familiar blank look on his face. Much like when he'd first come to Iwatodai. It is tempting, very tempting, to slide back into that forgetting he'd embraced after his parents' deaths, and push aside all of that confusion. Just exist, just move forward. That's easiest, right? Yet he knows better by now. All of his Social Links have taught him that much, and he tries to pull himself together. Since he looks like any other Japanese teenager (albeit with blue hair) he's not very recognizable as an imPort and thus isn't approached often. He wanders until he sees the ad for a free malt.
Ah. It belatedly occurs to him that he's thirsty. Right, that's what that feeling is. Minato enters and near-silently accepts his malt-- plain chocolate-- then goes to sit on a bench out on the street, sipping it. As he starts to come back to himself, he reaches for his mp3 player draped around his neck, checking that it still works. His concern for it causes the first palpable emotion to cross his face: furrowed brows, uncertain eyes. He doesn't fiddle with his headphones; he places one hand on the player and rests it there.
He wonders if it's possible to find his friends here. He wants to see them alive for himself, see proof that his sacrifice was worth it. That's really all that matters.
FINAL NOTES: For inventory, he will be wearing his Gekkoukan school uniform as usual, have his headphones and mp3 player, and his Evoker, the gun-shaped object used to summon Persona.